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��‘I cannot abide this fashion for women to blacken their teeth deliberately so people will think they live off nothing but fine sugar.��
‘I agree. It is not pretty.��
‘I have heard them say the pains in their mouth are worth it, if people respect them more.����

Torture in Tudor England is nothing new, but I never heard of this self-inflicted one to show you could afford sugar. And here’s another exchange between well-to-do teen-aged girls and their grandmother (who, ironically, is blind).

She passed a hand over her eyes. ‘G�����Ի岹��,�� she said meekly, ‘my vision is blurred. Do I have to use the nightshade?��

‘Belladonna is good, child. By expanding your pupils, it makes you look more comely. But perhaps a smaller dose.��

I looked at the old woman with distaste. I had heard of drops of deadly nightshade being used in this way for cosmetic purposes, but it was poisonous stuff.��

YIKES! I’m glad the use of both sugar and belladonna as cosmetic enhancements seem to have fallen into disfavour. The various tortures (the rack, heads on pikes) are familiar from other books, although ‘peine forte et dure�� (pressing or crushing), was new to me. That’s the one our favourite lawyer is trying to save the teenaged niece of a friend from. More later.

I wouldn’t have lasted into adulthood in Tudor England. This takes place in 1540, when Henry the Eighth is chafing under the yoke of another marriage, this to Anne of Cleves, arranged by his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell. Now he’s smitten with the 17-year old niece of Cromwell’s enemy, the Duke of Norfolk, and he’s ordered Cromwell to find a way to shed his wife.

Cromwell calls our favourite lawyer of the time, Matthew Shardlake back into harness. Yokes and harnesses. Well, it was a bit like that. For anyone to survive back then, they needed a protector, and Cromwell was the most powerful in the land after the king. This was like being asked by the Mafia to do them a favour - a request you couldn't refuse.

Shardlake is investigating the guilt or innocence of the young girl in the death of her cousin when Cromwell orders him to find Greek Fire, a substance alleged to be the world’s deadliest weapon. it is also known as Dark Fire, hence the title of the book, and a dark time it would be for the world if it were to get into the hands of an army.

Cromwell needs something special to get back into the king’s good books (after the latest wife debacle), and he’s counting on Shardlake to follow the rumoured trail of this mysterious substance to impress the king.

But there’s a deadline, and it’s about the same time as the court case for this poor girl who is languishing, dying, in prison in horrendous circumstances. She won’t speak, and if she doesn’t speak soon, she will be ‘crushed�� �� the sentence of ‘peine et dure��, a brutal death. (view spoiler)[ She will lie on her back and they will lay heavy stones on her body over a period of time until eventually her spine is crushed. (hide spoiler)]

And it’s an extremely hot summer, so our poor hunchbacked lawyer is more uncomfortable than usual. He has a new off-sider in Jack Barak, a nice addition to the story and a former soldier who’s handy with a weapon. Their enemies attack with crossbows and axes, thinking nothing of whacking off a limb or a head.

“Suddenly he jerked forward with a high-pitched scream, and to my horror I saw a crossbow bolt embedded in his upper arm, blood welling red over his white surplice. He staggered against the wall, looking at his arm in horror��.

Each time Shardlake follows a clue, he follows it to a home, a brothel, a shop, only to find the person he's looking for has disappeared or died (or both). I will spare you the stench of the streets and the worse stench of the prison. Suffice it to say that London in the summer of 1540 was not a place you’d want to be.

I am enjoying this series, but I’m going to have to pace myself. They are pretty lengthy, and I don’t really want to live there for too long at one time. I may have to visit Louise Penney’s Three Pines again soon. 😊

P.S. Thanks to Deborah (see comments below) for this funny YouTube clip about dangerous old beauty practices - fun but deadly!