Heartstone

England, 1545. Queen Catherine Parr asks Matthew Shardlake to investigate allegations that a Hampshire family has abused the property and person of a young ward of court. Shardlake and Jack Barak travel south while he also pursues the history of Ellen Fettiplace, a woman whose long confinement in Bedlam appears connected to an unexplained death. Both enquiries lead towards Portsmouth, where soldiers and sailors are assembling to resist a French invasion fleet.

The legal dispute over inheritance and guardianship conceals family identities, military interests and crimes committed years earlier. As the French approach the Solent, Shardlake’s private investigations become entangled with national mobilisation and with men close to the royal court. The two cases converge among the king’s warships, placing Shardlake aboard the Mary Rose as personal secrets and military catastrophe reach their conclusion together.