Sovereign (The Shardlake series, 3)

Product Information

SOVEREIGN was published in 2006 and was clearly influenced by the media attention and political conversation devoted to torture and its efficacy that was ubiquitous at the time.

in " The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly " Publishing This Week" newsletter. The official role is to deal with petitions to the king from the citizens of York; the secret mission is to ensure the welfare of an important political prisoner, Sir Edward Broderick, so that he can be brought to London for questioning in the Tower of London. Bernwyn of Lythe, a virgin and the young daughter of an ealdorman, refuses to get married and dedicates her entire life to Christ.La reforma religiosa, los escándalos maritales (el rey se acaba de casar con la 5ª, Catalina Howard), la escasa legitimidad de la dinastía, apuntalada en escasos y dudosos vínculos con las casas de York y de Lancaster, la crueldad del rey que reprime con gran dureza a los que se oponen a él tanto en política como en religión, han llevado al límite la estabilidad del trono. The third in the Matthew Shardlake series takes us to York , in the midst of Henry VIII's brutal supression of Northern England known as the Progress. King Henry VIII has set out on a spectacular Progress to the North to attend an extravagant submission by his rebellious subjects in York.

The novel concludes with two rather shocking acts by Shardlake: the murder of Wrenne and the burning of the sensitive documents. Centuries later, several mysterious deaths take place, with the relic still at the centre of things. BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. The deservedly successful series of novels (all published so far) featuring the Tudor lawyer Matthew Shardlake getting to grips with murder and political intrigue.When the formula is however stolen and two lifeless bodies are discovered, Shardlake suddenly finds himself with two chellenging cases and little time on his hands to solve them.

The theft of Queen Catherine's book proves to be connected to the terrible death of Anne Askew, while his involvement with the Cotterstoke litigants threatens to bring Shardlake himself to the stake. The King’s Progress progresses, with the nobility clad in extravagant finery while the regular folk are mostly pretty grubby. One thing all my books have in common is the struggle between reason and compassion (personified by Shardlake) and the competing religious fundamentalisms of his day—by which I mean doctrines that put versions of faith first while putting people and human values a poor second, and believe that doing such is what God intends. Both groups, however, believe that the world is divided between those who have true doctrine and those who do not, and the latter do not matter except so far as some may be converted.With religious tension rising, the Catholic party shifts their attention to Queen Catherine Parr, Henry's sixth wife. Sovereign is the 3rd book in the series (there are currently five) and follows after Dissolution and Dark Fire. De los personajes también tengo muchas cosas buenas que decir, es imposible no empatizar con nuestro protagonista y su unión con Barak, un joven granuja que le hace muy bien de contrapunto, del que ya comenté en la anterior novela que había sido un acierto y me reafirmo. This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. However, that is really a fairly minor quibble and some may even appreciate the stretching out of the narrative.