FANTASTIC! - Rated 
I thoroughly enjoyed this book,as i have
all of CJ Sansoms novels,and as long as
historical mysteries are
your thing i cant recommend
them enough.This one 'Revelation' is the
best one yet,i found myself longing to
sit down with a cup of tea,open the cover
and immerse myself in a cracking story
and a brilliantly evocative
description of tudor times,he simply brings
the whole period to life.
The Shardlake series has been a great discovery
for me and i hope there will be many more,im so
pleased we have a new one to look forward to
in september 2010 called 'HEARTSTONE' i cant wait!
Better by degrees - Rated
With more than a hundred reviews already available here, the innocent reader will not lack for guidance. My own view, as a confirmed Sansom addict, is that the four Shardlake novels show an admirable progression. Revelation crowns a notable achievement.
In Dissolution, the claustrophobic limitations of the community at Scarnsea and the largely indistinguishable monks were the down side. The pluses were originality of scene and the personality of the hunchback lawyer himself.
Evidence of the author's feel for place and period led one hopefully to Dark Fire, and in the matter of authentic atmosphere one was not disappointed. The dénouement - a long passage of "Before I kill you let me explain everything" - creaked a bit and earned minus marks; the great gain was the introduction of Jack Barak, a fully-fashioned character worthy to ride beside Shardlake.
Sovereign felt like Sansom maturing into complete control of his territory: historical background matched by character development. Moreover, now Barak acquired a partner in the feisty Tamasin.
So to Revelation. I share the reservations expressed elsewhere about the validity of a serial killer theme in Tudor clothes, and the odd jarring anachronism ("back to square one" for example). But the characters continue to develop: Shardlake in his agnosticism; the introspection of the black monk, Guy; and the stormy relationship of Barak and Tamasin. Overall, the author has taken on a challenging set of themes - the murders take place against, and are interwoven with, a background of religious persecution and failure to understand the nature of madness. His success, for this reader at least, is impressively convincing.
One big question remains: are the Shardlake chronicles at an end? Revelation closes with one or two issues left dangling. Devotees will live in hope.
revelation by c j sansom - Rated 
In the advert on Amazon it did not say this audio book was abridged which made it less enjoyable. Otherwise the production was good.
good book - Rated
an enjoyable historical novel in which you rapidly forget the historical setting and puzzle over the mystery. this is a bit like a Dan Brown but much better written and less predictable.
Tudor dentistry and radical religion - Rated 
C J Sansom's adventures in the London of Henry VIII are - well - a revelation. Sansom makes history come alive. He doesn't concentrate entirely on the famous people of the time - though Thomas Cranmer, Catherine Parr and the brothers of Henry VIII's favourite wife, Jane Seymour, feature in this book. Sansom has created a wonderful central figure in the humane, gentle, yet defiantly moral Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer who is connected by means of his clever brain to a number of courtiers who trust him to get to the bottom of difficult cases. This case concerns the frightful figure of a serial killer who is killing people according to methods portrayed in the Book of Revelations. There is an echo here of the film Seven, which portrayed a killer who used Dante's Purgatorio and the seven deadly sins in a similar way.
Sansom cleverly humanises these people of another time, while illustrating and informing his readership about the society they inhabit - you will learn the fine line drawn by the Tudors between madness and possession, the state of the medical profession, Tudor dentistry, and the fluid and dangerous nature of radical religion in a time of uncertainty for the Church. All of this information is germane to the plot and carries no taint of stuffing the text with research. It is brilliantly done.
You will also get an exciting, intelligently plotted story and characters with whom you can identify. A perfect pleasure and an absorbing read.
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