Heartstone (Matthew Shardlake 5)

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Elle Katharine White infuses elements of Austen’s beloved novel with her own brand of magic, crafting a modern epic fantasy that conjures a familiar yet wondrously unique new world. I had guessed it would happen at the halfway mark, the perils of a modest knowledge of history I guess.

The Tekari—sworn enemies of humans—are openly roaming the kingdom and are headed towards the capital, Edonarle. It is one of those series that I will reread soon so that I can visit Matthew Shardlake and his friends all over again. With a feeble internal whoop of joy, I finally finished this incredibly over-written novel which at least had the virtue of picking up the pace in the last quarter. Luckily, it is at this time that Matthew gets a case from his new patron, Catherine Parr, and he desperately needs Barak’s help.Once arrived, Shardlake and Barak find themselves in a city preparing to become a war zone; and Shardlake takes the opportunity to also investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettipace, a young woman incarcerated in the Bedlam.

Matthew has taken on a case as a favour to the Queen (Catherine Parr) to look into a case involving a ward of the courts and despite the country being on the brink of invasion must travel south to Hampshire to investigate.There is n It’s a war Aliza is ill-prepared to wage, on a battlefield she’s never known before: one spanning kingdoms, class lines, and the curious nature of her own heart. Knowing Shardlake's determination to obtain justice for the unfortunate, Catherine engages him to travel to Hoyland, the home of the childrens' guardians, Master Nicholas Hobbey and his wife, Abigail. Yet it is the rich characterisation that really brings this series to life, none more so than Shardlake himself, a beguiling hero with a bent body but a strangely modern mind. Sansom dazzles with his great set of Tudor era historical mysteries, mixing a few legal conundrums with controversies of the time to keep the reader hooked.