C. J Sansom

Having worked to establish laws that protect the interests of the crown in 1537, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar-general, enlists fellow reformer and lawyer Matthew Shardlake to investigate a commissioner's murder, which may be tied to an impending rebellion.

"1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany. The global economy strains against the weight of the long German war against Russia still raging in the east. The British people find themselves under increasingly authoritarian rule -- the press, radio, and television tightly controlled, the British Jews facing ever greater constraints. But Churchill's Resistance soldiers on. As defiance...

Asked by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr to investigate claims of wrongs committed against a young ward of the court, Matthew Shardlake embarks on the most politically dangerous case of his career against a backdrop of war between England and France.