Dark Fire: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Darkly brilliant
Review: C J Samson's second novel opens three years after the events at Scarnsea and we find our hunched hero, Matthew Shardlake getting involved in a criminal case where Elizabeth Wentworth is accused of the murder of her cousin. The facts are sketchy, Matthew's convinced of her innocence. The only problem is the accused refuses to speak.
Cromwell steps in to gain some time from the accused being peine forte et dure but the cost is Matthew must convince the renegade augmentation clerk, Gristwood to hand over the newly re-discovered formula to greek fire. Which swiftly proves impossible as Matthew and his new side-kick, Barak, find Gristwood dead. What follows are three plots lines as Samson weaves them altogether in a tangle so you're never sure which character is actually associated with which nefarious deed. Matthew rides round London, first on Chancery, then on another steed after Chancery winds up dead after saving Matthew's life, with twelve days to save Elizabeth, find out who is removing his cases from him and discover the whereabouts of the alchemist's formula.
Into the mix Samson stirs the lawyer, Bealknapp, with his unsavoury eye for financial gain, Sir Richard Rich, who is going round converting dissolved monasteries into tenement deathtraps, Lady Honor Vaughan, famous for her sugar parties and eclectic dinner conversation, the overly boorish and ambitious Lord Norfolk, the poorly lineaged but ever-grasping Serjeant Marchamount, and Matthew's master again, Lord Cromwell. Amongst it all a host of supporting characters from the downright nasty Wright and Tokey to the apothecary, Guy (from the first novel) move amongst the slums and mansions of London, from the Thames to the suburbs.
With Barak at his side they race through St Paul's Cathedral, jump walls and climb down wells, leap from burning buildings and dig up corpses as the pair weave through the growing list of murders to find conspiracy at a personal and political level that reaches from the courts to the King.
By the end Matthew has unravelled the mysteries, a new political order is in place and loose ends are tied up as he heads north for a quiet life.
Samson's writing is electric, clearly at the same level as Susanna Gregory as he brings Tudor London to vivid life where its harshly regulated lifestyle of informers and accusors draws the reader into breathing the very dirty air of such a tormented city. The prose is crisp and precise, the characterisation pointed, the plot effusive. Utterly worth reading and hopefully Samson will produce more tales of his put-upon hero for this reader, at least.

Rating:
Summary: Great Tudor atmosphere
Review: Fully developed characters, a complex and credible plot, and a nice, dark portrait of Henry VIII's England, complete with good historical research about day-to-day life in Tudor times...what more could you ask? I couldn't put it down!