Revelation, by C.J. Sansom, $26.95. In the year 1543, Henry VIII is looking to take his sixth wife, a widow named Catherine Parr who is afraid to marry him, and afraid not to. It’s a most repressive time in England’s history, as Henry is turning away from reform and religious reformers are now being persecuted if they speak their minds too freely.
Meanwhile, the streets of London are full of sick, homeless people, including former monks who were turned out when the monasteries were closed, as well as the poor souls they once treated in their hospitals. And the king is more interested in pouring money into foreign wars than caring for his subjects at home.
Matthew Shardlake, the sharp-witted hunchback who has figured in three earlier books from this astonishing author, is now a successful and prosperous lawyer working on an unusual case, that of a teenage boy gone mad from religion. For his own protection he’s been placed in the notorious Bedlam hospital for the insane, and though his parents want him removed, Matthew feels he is safer there, lest his uncontrolled prayers get him branded as a heretic.
In the midst of all this, Matthew’s best friend is murdered in a most sensational way, and he promises his widow Dorothy (whom he has long loved in secret) to find the killer. More gruesome murders ensue, all following certain prophecies in the Book of Revelation. It’s clear to the modern reader that we are dealing with a serial killer, a concept unknown to Tudor England.
The story is dense, complex and, at 550 pages, not one word too long. We can’t help but marvel at Sansom’s clear, easy prose and his gift for creating memorable characters and for breathing life into a time gone by. Matthew is a remarkable creation, a kind and rational man in an age of cruelty and superstition. And of course there are the inevitable unspoken comparisons to our own time, as there should be in any work of historical fiction because one age never learns from another’s mistakes. We can’t recommend this book too highly; it’s another virtuoso performance from a truly great talent.
A Rule Against Murder, by Louise Penny, $24.95. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec and his wife, Reine-Marie, are celebrating a wedding anniversary at the Manoir Bellechasse, a luxurious inn in the wilderness not far from the village of Three Pines, where Gamache has been a frequent visitor. All the other guests are members of an extended family there for an annual reunion, and much to the Gamaches’ surprise, two of them turn out to be Peter and Clara Morrow, artist friends of theirs from Three Pines.
The Morrow family is a strange lot, constantly bickering, frequently hateful, all embittered by past events and yet never quite what they seem to be. The highlight of their strained reunion is the unveiling of a statue of the late patriarch, Charles Morrow, a massive affair made of dense, heavy petrified wood, set upon a marble base in the garden. Not long after it has been installed, it topples, killing one of the daughters.
There is no way it was an accident, and the author sets up an ingenious, impossible crime puzzle for the reader. How could anyone have dislodged the statue from its base? And why was this particular family member chosen?
Gamache sends Reine-Marie away while he assembles his team of detectives to work on the problem. All the while, of course, they are served delectable food and drink by the inn’s solicitous staff. And more of Gamache’s family history is revealed to the reader.
Spade & Archer, by Joe Gores, $24. Joe Gores, a former private eye and longtime scholar and admirer of Dashiell Hammett, as well as a veteran mystery novelist, has given us a prequel to Hammett’s classic “The Maltese Falcon,” which he rightly calls the first hard-boiled noir detective novel.
Those who have read the original will recall that the real reason Sam Spade took the case was to find out who killed his partner, Miles Archer, a man he didn’t even like and with whose wife he was having an affair. But because he was his partner, he had to do something about his murder.
So here we meet Archer (who appears only briefly), as well as Spade, at the beginning of his career when he opens his own agency, hires Effie Perine and begins his relationship with Iva Archer. Material from “The Maltese Falcon” and from Hammett’s own days as a Pinkerton operative provide material for the plot.
The result is a story that reads almost as if Hammett himself had written it, and it’s not likely that any of his fans will be disappointed.
Tom and Enid Schantz write regularly about new mystery releases.
