Dissolution: A Shardlake Novel 1 Sansom

Winter 1537. Henry VIII has broken with Rome, and the king's fixer Thomas Cromwell is shutting down England's monasteries. When a royal commissioner is found murdered at a remote monastery on the Sussex coast, Matthew Shardlake — a hunchbacked lawyer loyal to Cromwell — is sent to investigate. What he finds is a community rotting from within: blackmail, sexual secrets, and zealots on both sides of the religious divide. Sansom writes historical crime with atmosphere thick enough to taste — the monastery's stone corridors reek of intrigue, and Shardlake makes for a compelling protagonist, sharp-minded but physically vulnerable in a brutal world. For readers who like their Tudor England dark, cold, and morally complicated. Perfect if you've exhausted Hilary Mantel and want murder mysteries with your Reformation politics.