Dissolution

Why I have this book, I have no idea. Okay, I have maybe some idea, but said idea involves Mom's pile of books and my misguided attempt at reading books outside of my usual genre of science fiction / fantasy. That, and the fact that this is book one of a series, what could go wrong?

Well, nothing went wrong, per se, with this book. It's about a hunchback (read: outcast, cerebral, loner, rational) detective, Matthew Shardlake, from the mid-1500s who solves mysteries for Cromwell of Henry VIIIth fame. While part of me is thinking, "Huh, right, of course Cromwell was a man, and a man of power, and as a man of power, he did deals," the rest of me is wondering, "Eh? This is an odd setting for a mystery."

Which is also to say, I'm not a fan of this book, but not because the writing was bad (it wasn't, it was good), and not because the mystery wasn't convincing (it was convincing), and not because the world wasn't built up well (it was built up well, with the reader stepping into the hunchback's world midtale, and, nicely, without beleaguered explanations), but because this really isn't my style of book.

I'm not a fan of mid-millenium England or Victorian England or all of those older Englands. So, a mystery set in England during the Reformation where people of power all scramble for more power at the cost of the masses, yeah, just doesn't do it for me.

If, however, you do like mysteries set in Old England, have at it. This book is a quick read, and there are two more Shardlake mysteries.