Dark Fire

It is 1540, and Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer renowned as ?the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England,? is pressed to help a friend's young niece who is charged with murder. Despite threats of torture and death by the rack, the girl is inexplicably silent. Shardlake is about to lose her case when he is suddenly granted a reprieve'one that will ensnare him in the dangerous schemes of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's feared vicar-general. In exchange for two more weeks to investigate the murder, Shardlake accepts Cromwell's dangerous assignment to find a lost cache of ?dark fire,? a legendary weapon of mass destruction. Cromwell, out of favor since Henry's disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves, is relying on Shardlake to save his position at court, which is rife with treasonous conspiracies.With its wonderful attention to period detail and its brilliant handling of suspense, Dark Fireis sure to win comparisons with Margaret George's Mary Queen of Scotland and the Islesand captivate readers of Philippa Gregory and David Liss.Sansom, C. J. is the author of 'Dark Fire', published 2005 under ISBN 9780670033720 and ISBN 0670033723.