Heartstone, by C. J. Sansom
Heartstone is the fifth in a series of Tudor-period mystery novels. It is 1545. King Henry VIII has launched a war against France, as pointless as it is ruinous for the nation's treasury. His Privy Council is using every ruse to find money to pay for troops, weapons... and food...
Among these means for squeezing money from circumstances where, at first glance, there should be none for the state, is the assignment of orphans' wardships. An orphaned child may stand to inherit... but only at majority. Until then, whoever holds the wardship manages the inheritance... and one of the King's most venal courts, the Court of Wards, sells assigns the wardships.
Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer, and not a simple lawyer at that. He is a "Sergeant" of the court. That is a prestigious rank! And a good thing, because Matthew Shardlake is also a hunchback, and that is a much less acceptable aspect, socially. In his forties, Shardlake has had an illustrious career, including a very large number of what we would today call "pro bono" cases, pleading for example for simple farmers against the wealthy landowners who were then trying to "enclose" common land to their own benefit.
Among Shardlake's clients, some years earlier, had been a lady named Catherine Latimer -- born Catherine Parr... now Henry's sixth wife, and Queen of England. Occasionally, Catherine has need of an honest man...
One of the Queen's long-time maids has come to her with the sad tale of the death of her son, a teacher, following his visit to the country estate where one of his former students lives. The student is an orphan, whose wardship had been assigned by the Court of Wards. The young man had told his mother that something "monstrous" was going on... and then had hanged himself. The Queen wants Shardlake to look into the matter.
The country estate where Shardlake must travel is near Portsmouth, where King Henry is gathering a great army and a greater fleet, to meet an imminent French invasion.
C. J. Sansom's historical research is impeccable, but never intrusive. He paints a world that is as it is. London stinks, of course, but that fact is not remarkable. Little Portsmouth, though, loaded with an influx of many thousands, stinks much, much worse... and that is remarked. Tudor England is made real by a thousand details, each woven seamlessly into the author's tapestry.
The characters are credible. Shardlake, of course, and his assistant Jack Barack. But also all the others, regardless of their time on stage. The good guys aren't perfect, nor are the bad guys totally evil. Well... except for... [no spoilers!] Most are people trying to muddle through, hoping to survive the gathering storm of war.
The books are all capable of standing alone, but you might as well start with the first, Dissolution , since you will surely be reading all of them...
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