Dissolution

In the winter of 1537, Thomas Cromwell sends the London lawyer Matthew Shardlake to the Benedictine monastery of Scarnsea after a royal commissioner is murdered. The house is already under pressure to surrender its property to the crown, and its monks meet the investigation with fear, resentment and carefully guarded secrets. Accompanied by his young assistant Mark Poer, Shardlake must examine a community divided by money, doctrine and the approaching destruction of its way of life.

Further deaths reveal that the commissioner’s killing cannot be separated from corruption inside the monastery or from the political methods used to close religious houses. Shardlake begins the case as a committed supporter of reform but is forced to distinguish religious change from greed, coercion and personal revenge. The investigation tests both his legal judgement and his willingness to continue serving a government whose declared ideals no longer match its conduct.