Dark Fire: A Matthew Shardlake Tudor Mystery - C. J. Sansom

In this sequel to Dissolution, it is now 1540, and Shardlake has returned to practicing law in London. When he is called on to help a friend's niece, charged with killing her cousin, he has no idea it will force him back into Cromwell's dangerous schemes. 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.