Dissolution by C. J. Sansom

Dissolution is the first of a series of detective novels by Sansom set during the reign of Henry VIII. The title refers to the famous "Dissolution of the Monasteries", which we all had to cover in school, but is also a bit of a pun, refering to decay and moral turpitude.

The lawyer Mathew Shardlake is dispatched by Thomas Cromwell to Scarnsea Abbey where the King's representive, sent to pressure the Abbey into agreeing to disolve itself, has been murdered. Mathew and his assistent Mark (a comely lad with fancy doublets and a fashionable codpiece) must investigate the crime in a cold, sinister set of buildings inhabited by spooky monks, one of whom is a murder. If this sounds a little familiar, I spotted a nod to The Name of the Rose: the monks' library holds a copy of Aristotle's "On Comedy" but they believe it to be a 13th century fake.

As Shardlake investigates further, not only does he uncover 3 more murders and cess-pit of hidden sin amongst the monks, but he comes to see that the fine motives he has ascribed to the leaders of the English reformation (a readable bible and an end to corruption in the church) are largely absent. While he believed that the wealth of the church could be redistributed to the poor, the Dissolution is revealed to be nothing but a land-grab by the King's friends. By the end of the book his disillusionment is complete as he has found out that his patron, Cromwell has tortured confessions out of innocent men and perjured himself to get rid of Anne Boleyn. Mathew Shardlake needs a new job, but it is not clear how he will be able to resign and keep is skin... I need the next book to find out!

Of interest to me in this book was an alternative piece of weather symbolism. In many, many, many books, the weather is hot at the start and as the tension builds it gets hotter and more sultry, then there will be a huge storm at the climax of the story. I have become so bored with this pattern that one night, after wine, I ranted to a friend that I would eat the next book I found it in! In dissolution, the weather is still telling us what's happening in the story, but in a refreshing way. When Mathew and Mark arrive at the Abbey they are immediately trapped there by snow. As the mystery unfolds, it does so with a cold, clean, pure white backdrop. Once Mathew finds out about Cromwell, the thaw sets in. As his comfortable world of righteous Reformers and corrupt Catholics is torn down, England becomes one huge quagmire... and I don't have to eat the book.