CJ Sansom: why didn't I discover him before?

[CharlotteRumpling]

I picked up a copy of "Tomblands", the last in the Shardlake series in the library, and I can't believe I never read him before. It's so good I stayed up all night reading it. I only picked it up because I heard he died recently; feel foolish for not having read him before because I read a lot of historical fiction and crime, and this combines the two!

Now I need to go back and read them in proper order as I have started backwards. He's so marvellous at evoking Tudor England, the sights, the sounds, the characters, the atmosphere.

Yes yes yes I have most of his, heard he had died and will be revisiting very soon - they are fantastic books - lucky you not having read them yet.

If you like historical and crime try Sarah rayne.

And just to add historical crime is really one of my favourite - have you read Philip Kerr ? Set in nazi germany - brilliant - also there is a glut of Victorian crime out there.

Thanks for the reccos; have not read either. I love Sarah Waters as well and Lindsay Davies.

I believe there is also a Shardlake TV series on Disney, but I recently unsubscribed to Disney. May subscribe again!

I've just resubscribed to watch Shardlake! Really enjoying it but not as good as the books which I loved.

You're in for a treat going from the beginning, Tomblands is the worst one in the series.

I agree. My favourite was Heartstone.

Oh, is Tomblands the worst? I liked it because I didn't know anything about Kett's Rebellion.
I remember now I started with the series in the pandemic, but I didn't like Book 1 very much. Maybe I just read it at the wrong time. Will begin again.

For me Tomblands was just too long and needed a bit of cutting down. The first one was a bit strange - not really in the same vein as the rest of the series but I still liked it. All the others were fantastic!

I'm reading Dark Fire just now. Absolutely brilliant. I enjoyed Dissolution but this is better, I'm enjoying Shardlake's character more. He's more rounded.

Agree, I couldn’t finish it , far too much padding. I have since wondered if it was because he was ill.

Dissolution wasn’t my favourite either, they do get a lot better.

Winter in Madrid also by him but set after the Spanish civil war is also really good 😊

Oh God! Did he die? I heard he was ill. Poor chap. What a loss to the literary world. I absolutely loved the Shardlake series.
Gutted!

I've loved the Shardlake books, so sad that he was still writing the last one when he died. Some online threads claim it is already out there published, but it isn't apparently.

@CharlotteRumpling I'm so excited for you! I have some as audiobooks too and regularly relisten. I have such a crush on Guy....

If anyone's craving more Shardlake, there's fanfiction out there, some of it quite good. Some others a little ahem adult though - not really in keeping with the series!

https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Matthew%20Shardlake%20Series%20-%20Cd%20Jd%20Sansom/works

The audio books are excellent too!

They are such good books. I may read some again. Sad to hear he died.

I love Guy so much!!

Same here, OP! I started reading after hearing Richard Osman talking about them on The Rest Is Entertainment, and I’m obsessed!

On Book 4 now and I keep promising myself that I’ll read two books between each one so as not to reach the end too soon…but then I cave. Great books!