'Matthew Shardlake combines engrossing historical detail with a first-rate murder mystery. A really satisfying page-turner'
- Independent on Sunday
'Sansom has a greater talent for animating period details than most of his contemporaries, his rendering of the Tudor winter in the first of the Shardlake series makes you reach for thick fleece blankets.'
- Guardian
'Remarkable . . . The sights, the voices, the very smell of this turbulent age seem to rise from the page.'
- P.D. James
'Extraordinarily impressive. The best crime novel I have read this year.'
- Colin Dexter
'Terrific . . . a remarkable, imaginative feat. It is a first-rate murder mystery and one of the most atmospheric historical novels I’ve read in years.'
- Mail on Sunday
'Terrific. Historical fiction at its finest.'
- Peter Robinson
'Dissolution is not just a fascinating detective story, but a convincing portrait of a turbulent period.'
- Sunday Telegraph
'I don’t read historical novels any more ? it’s a busman’s holiday ? but I make an exception for C. J. Sansom’s Shardlake books, which are set amid the uncertainties of the 16th-century Henrician Reformation.'
- Bernard Cornwell, The Times, The 25 books you must read
'CJ Sansom’s books are arguably the best Tudor novels going'
- Sunday Times