Dark Fire

This was intended as a bit of a comfort re-read as things have been stressful of late and taking myself out of it back into the world of 16th century London seemed like a good idea at the time! It was really, but my goodness Shardlake and Barak were pretty much in physical danger the whole time and were attacked and assaulted by both parties in the two cases they were working on, I don’t remember the Scarnsea case (“Dissolution”) being anywhere near as stressful. As always with the Shardlake books this is masterful writing, the author’s understanding of the legal practices of the time is immense and he works it so well into the fabric of the story. There is the usual level of misdirection and plausible misunderstanding and Shardlake comes across as a genuinely caring person who is forced by circumstance (and powerful masters) into doing things he is really uncomfortable about. The concept of Greek Fire is very cleverly used in the plotting to explain an unclear element in Cromwell’s…