An interesting period of English history, and the story is a great murder mystery. I'll definitely have to check out some other books in this series. ( )

Gee, I really liked this book! I am a big fan of medieval mystery series and this is one of the best, in my opinion. Sansom is a good writer. He resists long, awkward sentences chopped up by excessive punctuation. his prose and dialogue reads smoothly, naturally. His characters are likeable and well developed. They have personality, humanity, foibles, both strengths and weaknesses. The plot was intriguing, the twists were appropriate and did not rely on coincidences, the history was fascinating and (I assume) accurate, considering that the author has a PhD in history as well as being a former lawyer. I felt like I learned a lot while being entertained. I've also finished the second book, Dark Fire, and like it as much or more. I read an online interview http://www.panmacmillan.com/Interview... where he pointed out that he used a different plot device in each book in the series and I thought that was neat:

"Do you have a long-term 'vision' for the Shardlake series or do you just plan the books one by one?

I plan the books one by one. I don't like tying myself down too much where future plans are concerned. I have an idea - only an idea - that having done a "closed setting" mystery with Dissolution, a "quest" with Dark Fire, a "political thriller" with Sovereign, and now a serial killer novel with Revelation which I am working on, I might do a courtroom drama next - Shardlake is a lawyer after all."

It was clear to me that he's having a great time, too, and it rather inspires me to try doing some writing myself!

Lane

PS - I personally don't think that figuring out whodunit before the end of the book is a big negative. To me it's like the TV mysteries where you watch the killer commit the crime and the story is seeing how he or she is caught. Sansom is good about including epilogues that put things into perspective, resolve the main characters, etc. I find this type of closure very satisfying, and all too often find that authors just expose the killer or whatever and end the book there. ( )

http://wartaalman.blogspot.com/2009/0... ( )

Historical fiction merged with sleuthing multiple murder mysteries; this book is solidly written - shows attention to historical detail and has a mystery that flows through most of the book.

I think I would have enjoyed it more had I read it before Imprimatur; by contrast it is a lightweight and I found parts of it hard to keep going with. ( )

A moderately enjoyable page-turner. Sansom's historical and legal background give authority to his research, but do nothing to lighten his prose, which never rises above the pedestrian, or to leaven his characters. Where Dissolution really falls down for me is that Sansom tries and fails to balance modern sensitivities with Tudor sensibilities—rather than creating characters with authentic views of women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and homosexuals, Sansom describes people whose views are too even-handed and have the ring of anachronism to them. Supposedly from an age characterised by religious and nationalistic fervour, the interest which Shardlake takes in Brother Guy's cultural background felt forced. I also felt that Sansom was trying so hard not to write derogatory stereotypes of women or other minorities that he fell into the trap of writing them as too-nice clichés—he can't quite imagine them as fully-rounded people with flaws and virtues, rather than a collection of certain traits, and it shows. ( )