C. J . Sansom has garnered a wider audience and increased critical praise with each new novel published. His first book in the Matthew Shardlake series, , was selected by P. D. James in as one of her top five all-time favorite books. Now in , Shardlake faces the most terrifying threat in the age of Tudor England: imprisonment in the Tower of London. Shardlake and his loyal assistant, Jack Barak, find themselves embroiled in royal intrigue when a plot against King Henry VIII is uncovered in York and a dangerous conspirator they've been charged with transporting to London is connected to the death of a local glazer.