Lamentation

Set in the tumultuous final year of Henry VIII's reign in 1546, "Lamentation" plunges Matthew Shardlake, the brilliant and often troubled hunchbacked lawyer, into the heart of a deadly political and religious maelstrom. With the ailing King's death imminent, England's powerful Protestant and Catholic factions are locked in a desperate struggle for control over the future of the eight-year-old Prince Edward. Shardlake is unexpectedly summoned to Whitehall Palace by Queen Catherine Parr, Henry's sixth wife and his former mentor. The Queen harbors a dangerous secret: she has penned a radically Protestant confessional book, "Lamentation of a Sinner," whose discovery would guarantee her downfall and that of her sympathizers. When this explosive manuscript mysteriously vanishes, and a single page is found clutched in the hand of a murdered printer, Shardlake must race against time to recover the book. His investigation ensnares him in a labyrinth of court intrigue, where allegiances are fluid, Catholic enemies and Protestant allies alike pose threats, and ambitious opportunists are the most perilous of all. Shardlake’s loyalty to the Queen drives him through this treacherous world, exposing the dark underbelly of power during a pivotal moment in English history.