'Tombland' unearths plots and Tudor-era political intrigue
, the seventh and longest of C. J. Sansom’s historical mysteries starring Tudor-era lawyer Matthew Shardlake (the series began with “Dissolution” in 2003), opens in the spring of 1549 when England is a very unsettled state. There are rumblings of insurrection in the north; the treasury is quickly emptying; a pack of power-hungry noblemen are vying for supremacy; and there’s a vacuum at the heart of all this chaos: No king sits on the throne.
