Dark Fire by C. J. Sansom

Awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger – the highest honor in British crime writing From the bestselling author of Winter in Madrid and Dominion comes a second riveting sixteenth-century thriller featuring hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake In 1540, during the reign of Henry VIII, Shardlake is asked to help a young girl accused of murder. She refuses to speak in her defense even when threatened with torture. But just when the case seems lost, Thomas Cromwell, the king’s feared vicar general, offers Shardlake two more weeks to prove his client’s innocence. In exchange, Shardlake must find a lost cache of "Dark Fire," a legendary weapon of mass destruction. What ensues is a page-turning adventure, filled with period detail and history. "Atmospheric and engaging" (Margaret George), this second book in Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery series delves again into the dark and superstitious world of Cromwell's England introduced in Dissolution.

This was a pretty good read overall. Somewhere between three and four stars. There are a couple of mystery plots, and one of them was more interesting to me than the other. Oddly for me, the one I enjoyed more was a family drama, and the other was about court intrigue, etc.

There's also a friendship plot, which I enjoyed very much. Shardlake has to work with a cynical street tough. It looks like he'll continue as a sidekick, and I look forward to his appearance in future books.

It's very difficult to focus on books that are new to me right now, so I'm very glad I was able to finish this. I'll continue with this series at some point. It's a little dull, but that's a good escape for me sometimes.

A perfect sequel

The first book in this series introduced you to the main character and tried to give you an understanding of the climate of England during the early-mid 1500s. This book continues this theme whilst giving you even more insight into the political movements whilst producing a simple wonderful story with incredibly thought out characters. It is very hard to make characters feel real whilst also making them seem nice. Nice people in real life lose their temper, say mean things and sometimes make questionable decisions. You far too often see “nice” characters always just doing the “right” thing. Characters in this book don't and it made my truly appreciate them more!