It's an interesting installment in the further adventures of Matthew Shardlake, hunchback and lawyer. This happens in 1541, during King Henry VIII's progress through the North of England to overawe and subjugate his rebellious subjects. There is much for them to rebel over, the poor are crippled by heavy taxes and the rich are benefiting from the dissolution of the monasteries. Catherine Howard is Henry's current wife and things are starting to get a little rocky. Matthew Shardlake is in York for two purposes. The first is to process some local legal work for the king and the second is on a mission from Archbishop Cranmer to ensure that a certain prisoner survives to questioning and his almost certain execution. He stumbles on the death of a stained glass artisan and this sets in play a series of events that lead to several attempts at his life. To survive he has to discover what the conspiracy is, but knowledge can also be dangerous. It's just that bit too detailed. Some of the assumptions and language are a little too modern, but that could be excused for legibility. There are few modern readers who would be able to get through a full novel of Tudor English. I found myself losing track of the events because of the detail but the detail added hugely to the sense of place of the novel. By the end I was happy to have read it but left with some sense that it could have been tighter.