AUTHOR CJ Sansom is familiar to York readers for Sovereign, his gripping murder mystery set in York at the time of King Henry VIII. The book, the third of Sansom’s Tudor thrillers involving the lawyer Matthew Shardlake, was chosen by council bosses in York for last year’s Big Read Event – which saw copies of the book being given away in St Sampson’s Square.

Now Shardlake is back, in the fifth novel in Sansom’s series.

Heartstone is set in 1545. Henry, bloated, bullying and vicious, is on his sixth and final wife, Queen Catherine Parr.

He has also bankrupted the country by leading a ruinous invasion of France. With his army stranded on the continent, and the French fleet preparing to sail across the channel, England braces itself for invasion.

Across London, militia army the London Trained Bands is desperately recruiting every able-bodied young man it can lay hands on to prepare for resistance against the French. Henry’s warships, including the Mary Rose, meanwhile, sail out of the Thames and head for Portsmouth, ready to do battle with the French fleet.

Shardlake is summoned by Queen Catherine to her palace at Hampton Court, and is there given a job: to investigate claims of ‘monstrous wrongs’ committed by Hampshire landowner Sir Nicholas Hobbey against his young ward Hugh Curteys.

Just what those wrongs are, Shardlake doesn’t know – the allegations were lodged by Hugh’s tutor, Michael Calfhill, who died in mysterious circumstances shortly afterwards.

Shardlake sets off for Portsmouth to investigate – just as the English fleet is preparing to sail out and confront the approaching French….

Sansom’s England in the time of King Henry is a viper’s pit of treachery and deceit, underlined by fear of the monstrous king who is absolute ruler of everything. Shardlake has to combat corruption at court, the plotting of high-placed enemies, and personal prejudices as he goes in search of the truth. Another gripping thriller in what is becoming a great series.