National Post

Author wrote Tudor crime novels

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LONDON • British author C.J. Sansom, best known for his historical crime novels featuring the Tudor lawyer and investigat­or Matthew Shardlake, has died, his publisher said Monday. He was

71.

Pan Macmillan said Christophe­r John Sansom was working on his latest Shardlake novel, Ratcliff, when he died Saturday after a period of worsening health.

Sansom introduced the character of Shardlake in his first novel, Dissolutio­n, a murder mystery set in Tudor England in the 16th century. The title referred to King Henry VIII’S dissolutio­n of the monasterie­s.

Published in 2003, the book’s combinatio­n of intriguing detective story and convincing historical details won Sansom critical acclaim and many fans, and he went on to release six more novels featuring Shardlake.

Often described as a Tudor version of Inspector Morse, the sullen but sympatheti­c detective character created by novelist Colin Dexter, Shardlake was Sansom’s best-known literary creation, travelling across England in the midst of war, famine and revolt while suffering at times from “melancholy humors.”

Set apart by temperamen­t as well as physique (he is an honourable man surrounded by hypocrites, labelled a “crookback” by colleagues who mock his scoliosis), Shardlake works for patrons including Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury; Catherine Parr, the last of Henry’s six wives; and the king’s younger daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I, who dispatches him to investigat­e the murder of a distant relative in Tombland (2018), Sansom’s last and longest published novel.

Dissolutio­n has been adapted into a Disney+ series, and the show, starring actors Sean Bean and Arthur Hughes, is set to be released on Wednesday.

Sansom also penned two standalone historical thrillers, Winter in Madrid and Dominion. Over 3 million copies of his books are in print, his publisher said.

Sansom conducted extensive research for his novels, digging into archival materials and including a lengthy bibliograp­hy and historical note at the back of each book. He was credited with helping spur renewed interest in the Tudor era, along with British author Hilary Mantel, whose Wolf Hall trilogy featured a less brutal, more sympatheti­c version of Cromwell, and TV shows like Showtime’s bodice-ripper The Tudors, which Sansom considered “infantile.”

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C.J Sansom

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