This is quite a strange introduction to one of my favourite detectives and perhaps the quirkiest one of all, Matthew Shardlake, the creation of Edinburgh-born C J Sansom. But, where does Hilary Mantel come in? Let me elaborate.
Dame Hilary Mantel, as I’m sure you know, is and English writer, principally, but not exclusively, of historical fiction and she is perhaps best known for the series of novels which began in 2009 with ‘Wolf Hall’, followed in 2012 by ‘Bring up the Bodies’ and, most recently, ‘The Mirror and the Light’ in 2020. She is probably even better known for the TV series ‘Wolf Hall’ which was aired by the BBC in 2015 and which covered the first two novels in the series. In short, the books cover the power of Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry the Eighth through to the death of Sir Thomas More. Just to follow up on the title of this piece, encouraged by an interest in Tudor times sparked by my affection for the Matthew Shardlake books (more later), I gave the Mirror and the Light a go last year and……..it was too hard for me!
So, what I’m saying is, if you’re interested in some historical fiction, especially around the first half of the sixteenth century (and it was certainly an interesting period) but you want it to be fairly light and to enable you to indulge your enjoyment of detective fiction, you really need to try the Shardlake books. There are seven of them and, as I mentioned in an earlier piece, there may not be any more as poor old Chris Sansom has not been well, and you can try any of them. However, although I always say this, it really is worth beginning with the first one ‘Dissolution’ and reading them in order because that keeps the history on track and gives you a really good feel for what was going on and what life was like at the time.
Just before I let you have a little insight into what the novels are about, I would say that I know everyone is not interested in history although many people are. I was not at all, other than pretty contemporary history and that is quite strange, I think, because my father was a history teacher so there must have been lots of history books in our house. It just didn’t spark my interest and, for some reason, my father never encouraged me towards it. I would also say that, although I love the Shardlake books and, of course, the character of Matthew Shardlake himself, it hasn’t really resulted in me seeking out other historical authors. I tried a book by S J Parris called ‘Heresy’ which is the first of a series set in Elizabethan England, so the same period as Shardlake, and it also features a detective called Giordano Bruno. It was fine and I may try more but I have to admit that I haven’t been racing to do so. It just didn’t appeal to me the way that the Shardlake books have done.
Anyway, I’m wandering a bit here so back to Shardlake! I talked at the outset about role models and I have to admit that I like ‘cool’ characters in my detectives, guys whose shoes I can put myself into and relate to (at least in my imagination). Matthew Shardlake doesn’t fall into that category. He is a lawyer in his forties, single, quite small in stature and has a severe hunchback. He is really not anyone’s picture of a successful detective! However, he has friends in high places, notably some of Henry’s Queens and he begins by undertaking detective commissions for the aforementioned Thomas Cromwell. He works with an assistant, initially Mark Poer and then, and for longer, Jack Barak who tend to bring the qualities to the team that Shardlake doesn’t have, such as strength and fighting ability!
Shardlake specialises in taking on tricky tasks and he gets into all sorts of scrapes, ending up in prison from time to time and, on one occasion, being stretched on the rack (not very good for his back)! However, he somehow manages to pull through and sort out what is invariably a complicated whodunnit. At the same time though, the books provide a description of and an insight into what was an extremely interesting period in history with (if you’re anything like me) a lot of information about a number of historical figures you have heard of but may not know much about.
I can’t recommend the Shardlake series to you highly enough and I don’t know anyone who has tried it who hasn’t thoroughly enjoyed it so give it a go (but in order). I guarantee you won’t regret it and it’s a lot easier than Hilary Mantell (although I’m sure she is really good)!