Země mrtvých nadějí – Sansom C. J. (2019)

Summer of 1549. Two years after the death of Henry VIII, England is plunged into chaos. The heir to the throne, Edward VI, is only eleven years old. His uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, rules on his behalf as Lord Protector. The populace struggles under the efforts of radical Protestants to eradicate the old faith, and the Lord Protector is waging a long and unsuccessful war in Scotland, threatening to reignite conflict with France. The worst of it all, however, is the economic decline – inflation is rising at a dizzying pace, and resistance is beginning to brew among the peasants. Matthew Shardlake has found work as a lawyer in the service of Henry's younger daughter, Princess Elizabeth, after the old king's death. Shardlake, along with his assistant Nicholas Overton, is sent to the summer assizes in Norwich. In this city, he investigates the gruesome murder of Edith Boleyn, the wife of John Boleyn, a distant relative of Elizabeth's mother, the infamous Anne Boleyn. He suspects a political motive behind the murder, but evidence is scarce. In Norwich, he also meets his former assistant Barak. The three of them work together to delve beneath the surface of the mysterious – and as they will soon discover – dangerous circumstances surrounding Edith's death when another murder occurs. At that time, however, in...