Book description
It is 1540 and the hottest summer of the sixteenth century. Matthew
Shardlake, believing himself out of favour with Thomas Cromwell, is busy
trying to maintain his legal practice and keep a low profile. But his
involvement with a murder case, defending a girl accused of brutally
murdering her young cousin, brings him once again into contact with the
king's chief minister - and a new assignment . . . The secret of Greek
Fire, the legendary substance with which the Byzantines destroyed the
Arab navies, has been lost for centuries. Now an official of the Court
of Augmentations has discovered the formula in the library of a
dissolved London monastery. When Shardlake is sent to recover it, he
finds the official and his alchemist brother brutally murdered - the
formula has disappeared. Now Shardlake must follow the trail of Greek
Fire across Tudor London, while trying at the same time to prove his
young client's innocence. But very soon he discovers nothing is as it
seems . . .
C. J. Sansom was educated at Birmingham University, where he took a
BA and then a Ph. D. in history. After working in a variety of jobs,
he retrained as a solicitor and practised in Sussex, until becoming a
full-time writer. He lives in Sussex.
