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lfro2013's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I really enjoyed this book, it's a great little murder mystery and I definitely felt like I was on the edge of my seat for the majority of it. I really like historical novels and this one is very rich with the way it builds the historical atmosphere. It also feels very informative in a natural way. It wasn't perfect, there are some things about the ending that I might change, but generally speaking I'm excited to read the next installment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Death, Homophobia, and Racism
dimins's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
3.75 stars. It's a bit of a weird rating but felt the most right. Dissolution had its flaws and had a little bit of some pre-2010 trappings, but ultimately I weirdly enjoyed myself throughout it all and may be continuing the series. I want to give a shout-out to Anton Lesser who narratd the abridged audiobook. His performance of the story was a huge factor in pulling me into the story at the beginning before the action starts.
Where Sansom shines is really the historical context of the story. He's apparently got some degrees in English history and it shows. Sansom goes into a visceral degree of detail about the sights, the sounds, and the smells of 16th century England, particularly London. The historical context of the English Reformation and the clashing of the Roman Catholic Church and the burgeoning Protestants in royal favour, both struggling with corruption within its ranks, was very well done and immersive. The first few chapters do take some time to really get things going though, and I almost DNFed at some points.
The central mystery, however, reads like text-based RPG. This isn't to say that it was unenjoyable. I weirdly liked it, but maybe it's because I like text-based RPGs to begin with. When our crime-solving hero Shardlake interrogates other characters, it's a very straightforward to-and-fro dialogue, like: "What were you doing in the infirmary?" "I was mixing herbs." "Who were you mixing it for?" "Brother Francis complained of a sore leg, so I was mixing it up for him." The above is completely imaginary dialogue, but that's basically how most interrogations went in the whole book. Once again, I didn't mind this style at all and I can't explain why.
I'm on the fence about our hero Shardlake. In some areas, he seems like a sympathetic character with a moral compass that most of the other characters around him lack, and is therefore worth rooting for. He also has some type of spinal deformity that makes him a hunchback, something that affects the way characters interact with him and also his own perspective about people and himself. What really annoyed me about him wasthe way he treated Mark and Alice. I didn't mind him developing a fascination for Alice, and it might've been fun if Alice had fallen in love with Matthew instead, but then when it's clear that Alice did not have romantic affection for Matthew but instead was into Mark, Matthew behaved in a bit of a spiteful jealous hypocritical way. The way he sought to change Mark's mind by representing to him the fact that Alice is a servant and therefore not "worthy" of him, but then turning around and pining after Alice himself and feeling happy whenever she said anything remotely sympathetic or comforting to him. It just felt so blegh. What redeemed it a bit for me was that at least Matthew admitted to himself that he <i>was</i> being a hypocrite, and it wasn't smoothed over in the narrative.
The book also brings us Brother Guy who is described as being a "Moor". I can't recall off the top of my head now where he's supposed to come from, but he's a brown-skinned Catholic monk in England, so that's a pretty interesting and diverse choice to make for a pre-2010 book. I liked Brother Guy's interaction with Shardlake, and he's easily my favourite character in the cast. Of all the monks in the monastery, only Brother Guy seems to act and behave like he's a religious fellow. Every other monk in this one has some pretty atrocious behaviour.
On the treatment of certain characters:I was really, really worried at one point when suspicion was cast upon Brother Guy. If the only person of colour in the cast ends up being the ultimate villain and murderer, it would certainly have pulled my rating of this book down a few notches. I was therefore incredibly happy that Brother Guy remained the only role model of the cast here, perhaps even more commendably so than Matthew Shardlake himself. Another character I was really worried about was Brother Gabriel. I'm not a fan of the trope where the only queer character is represented as being perverse, depraved, and cowardly. Gabriel does get a bit of a redemption in the end when he sacrifices himself to save Matthew, but I could've done without the whole "secret voyeur jerking himself off to other men" thing that was ascribed to him. We do definitely have a bit of balance because the other monks were said to be lusting over women and sexually harrassing servant girls like Orphan and Alice, so Gabriel's not the only sexually depraved one here but yeah, still.
Overall, an enjoyable historical mystery which I'm keen to continue.
Where Sansom shines is really the historical context of the story. He's apparently got some degrees in English history and it shows. Sansom goes into a visceral degree of detail about the sights, the sounds, and the smells of 16th century England, particularly London. The historical context of the English Reformation and the clashing of the Roman Catholic Church and the burgeoning Protestants in royal favour, both struggling with corruption within its ranks, was very well done and immersive. The first few chapters do take some time to really get things going though, and I almost DNFed at some points.
The central mystery, however, reads like text-based RPG. This isn't to say that it was unenjoyable. I weirdly liked it, but maybe it's because I like text-based RPGs to begin with. When our crime-solving hero Shardlake interrogates other characters, it's a very straightforward to-and-fro dialogue, like: "What were you doing in the infirmary?" "I was mixing herbs." "Who were you mixing it for?" "Brother Francis complained of a sore leg, so I was mixing it up for him." The above is completely imaginary dialogue, but that's basically how most interrogations went in the whole book. Once again, I didn't mind this style at all and I can't explain why.
I'm on the fence about our hero Shardlake. In some areas, he seems like a sympathetic character with a moral compass that most of the other characters around him lack, and is therefore worth rooting for. He also has some type of spinal deformity that makes him a hunchback, something that affects the way characters interact with him and also his own perspective about people and himself. What really annoyed me about him was
The book also brings us Brother Guy who is described as being a "Moor". I can't recall off the top of my head now where he's supposed to come from, but he's a brown-skinned Catholic monk in England, so that's a pretty interesting and diverse choice to make for a pre-2010 book. I liked Brother Guy's interaction with Shardlake, and he's easily my favourite character in the cast. Of all the monks in the monastery, only Brother Guy seems to act and behave like he's a religious fellow. Every other monk in this one has some pretty atrocious behaviour.
On the treatment of certain characters:
Overall, an enjoyable historical mystery which I'm keen to continue.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Homophobia, Torture, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Fatphobia, Gore, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Racism