The author successfully mixes real people, from the turbulent time of Henry VIII, with his fictional character Mathew Shardlake. The latter being an ex-monk, owing to the earlier dissolution of the monasteries, and now a lawyer who engages in detective work on the side. The story is an intriguing one that keeps one gripped throughout aided by the superb reading by Anton Lessor, who breathes life into all the various characters. The seven predictions from the Bible's book of Revelation are revealed as the template for seven gruesome murders. I was reminded a bit of David Hewson's first book in his modern-day Rome series in the inventiveness of the plot.