C. J. Sansom is an international bestselling author known for riveting suspense and intricately constructed mysteries. His atmospheric prose has earned him an Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award, among other accolades.

In the third novel in this riveting series, barrister Matthew Shardlake is faced with the most terrifying threat in the age of Tudor England: his own imprisonment in the Tower of London. Harsh autumn winds stir the English countryside as King Henry VIII, along with a thousand soldiers and his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, make their way from London to York after a violent uprising. Shardlake and his loyal assistant, John Barack, have a secret mission—they must transport a dangerous conspirator back to London for interrogation. After a local glazier is murdered, Shardlake finds that this death seems not only connected to the prisoner, but to the royal family itself. Shardlake grows more determined when he realizes that a greater threat looms over the crown.

“Sansom seems to have been born with, or instinctively acquired, that precious balance of creativity and research that lets mystery set in another time walk a delicate line between history and humanity.”—Chicago Tribune