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I really enjoy this series of mystery novels set in the reign of Henry VIII. The author has a gift for weaving the historical backstory into the mystery and generating a very evocative atmosphere of London in the 16th century. Through the characters and other story lines running through the novel, many pictures of daily life emerge including the practice of Medicine at the time, the workings of the sewerage system, construction of false teeth and of course the upheaval in religion and the chucrches during the reformation.

In this fourth novel of the series, Henry is courting his sixth wife, Catherine Parr. The city is tense with religious unrest following the dissolution of the monasteries and those caught preaching on the streets are arrested and put to death. When several bizarre murders are uncovered, one victim being a close friend of lawyer Matthew Shardlake, there are fears that of a plot against the King and Archbishop Cramer hires Matthew and his assistant Jack Barak to hunt down the killer. Matthew has also been hired to look into the case of a young man, seized with religious fervour who has been locked in Bedlam for his own safety. This is a long novel, but I enjoyed every page of it as Matthew uses his detective skills to tease out the identity of the killer.