I came across a book today that I think might interest those of you who like mysteries set in Medieval England.. The title is Dissolution, and it's by a new author, C. J. Sanson. It's on the short list for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award and the John Creasey Award for Best First Crime Novel. It looks as if this is going to be the first of a series of books with a protagonist who is "The sharpest hunchback in the Courts of England." It's set in Tudor England, 1537, and involves a couple of murders that have to be solved before another one happens. I read two reviews that are on my library's online catalog. One was positive, one somewhat negative. The annotation is "In what's being called a brilliant debut, Sansom presents a riveting historical novel in which issues of politics and faith collide when a gruesome murder is committed in a remote Benedictine monastery during the reign of Henry VIII. " The Library Journal review gives a more complete summary but says "... With a Ph.D. in history and a background in law, Sansom clearly harbors a deep affection for and knowledge of this historical period. However, his novel is unrelentingly grim in tone, as the reader is forced to plod along with Shardlake and the other mostly unlikable characters. Although the novel can be superficially compared with the historical mysteries of Iain Pears and Umberto Eco, their caliber of writing is much higher than Sansom's." On the other hand, Publishers' Weekly says, after its summary, "...With this cunningly plotted and darkly atmospheric effort, Sansom proves himself to be a promising newcomer." The book I saw was a slim paperback published in 2005, if I remember correctly, but it must have small print, because the library's copy was published in 2003 and has 390 pages. I loved thd Cadfael and Sister Frevisse mysteries, so this caught my attention and I added it to my list of books to read. (I hope I live long enough to read everything I want to, but one always finds more and more--smile). Cindy __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to bookshare-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the Subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.