Lamentation

In the summer of 1546, Henry VIII is dying while conservative and reformist councillors compete to control the government of his young heir. Queen Catherine Parr secretly asks Matthew Shardlake to recover a handwritten copy of her religious work, The Lamentation of a Sinner, stolen from a locked chest. Its uncompromising Protestant arguments could be used by her enemies as evidence of heresy, and the disappearance has already been followed by murder.

Shardlake and Jack Barak trace the manuscript through printers, merchants, radicals and courtiers as the execution of Anne Askew demonstrates the danger facing reformers. The search exposes rival networks preparing for the succession and forces Shardlake to work inside the queen’s household without knowing whom she can trust. His investigation becomes a contest over who will define English religion after Henry’s death and whether law can protect anyone once doctrine is treated as treason.