Book review: Revelation

The story started out slow about a hunchback lawyer, who is the hero (wow, three words I’d never thought I’d use in the same line) thinking about opening a hospital with one of his good friends, only to find his friend murdered in horrendous circumstances.

When officials and the coroner himself act indifferent to the murder, our hero Matthew Shardlake takes it to his own hands to get the investigation going. Little does he know, this murder is only one of a series of murders that have occurred, and many more to come. Later on, Shardlake would find out that the murderer is murdering his victims based on the verses in Revelation from the Bible, and is in no mood to stop his murdering spree.

Whilst I agree with some critics, that his storytelling can be a bit slow and hard to devour in just one sitting, it is a good book to pass time with. And the characters grow on you while you find yourself absorbed into the moment in history where all of this is happening. Big names like Thomas Cromwell, Archbishop Cramner, Catherine Parr and King Henry (the king who had 6 wives) pop up regularly amidst the stories of a boy admitted into an asylum for his incessant praying, a modern-thinking doctor trapped in the era of blood-letting as the cure to everything and Shardlake contemplating his love and desire for his recently widowed friend.

I’m reading Sovereign, a previous effort by Sansom also featuring Shardlake, a character that I will grow to like... eventually.

What? He's a lawyer.