An 800-page novel about the peasant uprisings of 1549!” Marilyn Stasio, the longtime mystery and crime reviewer for The New York Times Book Review, began a column in 2019. It was an assessment of “Tombland,” the seventh work of historical fiction by C.J. Sansom to feature Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer-turned-detective whose exploits solving chilling murders in Tudor England come steeped in suspense and granular historical detail. Readers are made privy to the court intrigues of Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII, eavesdrop on women arguing in a market stall, and inhale the stench of London streets. “Sansom describes 16th-century events in the crisply realistic style of someone watching them transpire right outside his window,” she wrote.

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Persons: goody, Marilyn Stasio, C.J . Sansom, Matthew Shardlake, Thomas Cromwell, King Henry VIII, eavesdrop, “ Sansom, ”, . Sansom Organizations: The New York Locations: Tudor England, London