read by Anton LesserC. J. Sansom inhabits the murky worlds of sixteenth-century church and state politics with a striking and credible cast of characters - some historical, others fictitious. With Henry VIII's marital ambitions the narrative background, the book is full of Machiavellian political intrigue, Catholic and Reformist suspicions, legal differences and a series of brutal killings which seem to echo the supposed prophecies of the New Testament Book of Revelation, lately translated into the vernacular.
The tension never diminishes as the listener becomes absorbed by the deftly drawn human relationships of the men and women in the story and by the twists and turns of the psychological and criminal investigations. A full seven hours of narrative, Anton Lesser's exceptional reading draws you deep into the darkest corners of Tudor London and leaves you begging for a sequel. Breathtakingly good.
* * * * *
(abridged)
