The dark and murderous tale of Dark Fire (Dark Fire - C.J. Sansom)

Member Name: berrydelight

Product:	Dark Fire - C.J. Sansom
Date:	19/08/09 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Another fantastic story featuring Shardlake

Disadvantages: Reading them in the wrong order is ok but not reccommended!

I cannot help but feel I have done myself and the author of the Shardlake series C.J.Sansom a disservice by not reading his amazing novels in their correct order. As some of you may have read my Revelation review I was literally hankering after my next one in the set, on seeing Dark Fire in Asda for £4.77 I stupidly bought it without noticing it is the second in the series, meaning I have now read the fourth and the second! Needless to say this has caused me some problems which I have sought to overlook in my review.

Dark Fire is another tale featuring my new favourite detective, Master Shardlake, a lawyer who more often than not deals in property and civil matters and likes to keep himself to himself and is a quiet humble sort of fellow. He is an enigmatic and likeable character who once again I was instantly drawn in to like, the reader sees his personal struggle with his lack of religion and quiet maintenance of his status as he resolves his personal struggle with his hunchback, a deformity that makes him human and so different from our other detective heroes.

In Dark Fire Shardlake is set to help a girl, Elizabeth Wentworth who is from a good family and is charged with the murder of her young cousin who it is believed she threw down the well. Elizabeth refuses to speak which helps generate and spur the ill-feeling against her and encourage those that feel she is possessed by the devil. Her failure to speak will result in an immediate death penalty or worse the rack and Shardlake is tasked with the unenviable responsibility of trying to help her. A reprieve from imminent death is granted for ten days but in return Shardlake must complete a task for Earl Cromwell (Thomas if your interested, not Oliver, who would have thought two of them could exist and cause me to make a fool of myself in a pub quiz!). The task involves delving into the darkest and murkiest underbelly of London in search of Dark Fire, or Greek Fire to those in the know. Shardlake is joined by one of Earl Cromwell's closest aides Barak and over the course of the novel the unlikely pairing faces danger, murder and treachery round after bend not only to find and defeat the holders of the dark fire formula but to ensure it does not reach the wrong hands all this on top of the 10 day deadline to uncover the truth about the Wentworth girl. Throw in a love interest and sub-plots of deceit and good old fashioned treachery and you have yourself a flipping good read!

I hope the above plot summary whet your appetite as I will not be giving too much more away! The magic in these books for me is the storytelling, you weave through Tudor London often feeling as though you are actually sat beside Shardlake on his horse, Sansom builds fear and tension so well and his description of some of the murder scenes are so real you can almost taste the smell of the blood. The imagery utilised by the author is incredible and you do begin to see the sights, hear the sounds and even smell the sewage that enveloped London during those times.
Already mightily fond of Shardlake your whole being becomes weighed down with the tension and stress as the story rolls on, from the moment you begin to read you become absorbed and in my experience that kind of skill only belongs to a very gifted writer.

The developing relationship between Barak and Shardlake is well orchestrated (I know from reading Revelation how this relationship pans out and from that respect the eventual outcome of this book held no surprise for me) at first they are at odds, then they grew to respect one another before the dark event they are witnessing and experiencing pulls them closer together still.

I have mentioned it in a prior review, but it is so fundemental to the success of the book that it is worth mentioning again, that the author's legal experience and academic success in the field of history have certainly helped create a formidable combination of real, engrossing historical descriptions and a true, tangible insight into the legal process of that era making it a fascinating novel.

I recently recommended this series of books to a colleague who loves her murder mystery novels and I do think anyone who reads that type of novel would enjoy this it broadens the genre, it is so deeply involved in the history of the times it becomes much more of a historical thriller with the murderous acts and mysteries thrown in for good measure making it an extraordinary enrapturing read.

My final parting words are that I cannot bring myself to knock off a star even though I think I should have left it longer than a few days to read the next one as the style became slightly repetitive but still an outstanding book.

Paperback: 500 pages
Publisher: Pan Books; (3 Jun 2005)
ISBN-10: 0330411977
ISBN-13: 978-0330411974

Summary: Another amazing twist and turn Tudor thriller!