It takes banishment to the island Aeaea for Circe to sense her calling as a sorceress: “I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open. The novel, with its distinctive feminist tang, starts with the sentence: “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” Readers will relish following the puzzle of this unpromising daughter of the sun god Helios and his wife, Perse, who had negligible use for their child. This time, she dips into The Odyssey for the legend of Circe, a nymph who turns Odysseus’ crew of men into pigs. The writer returns to Homer, the wellspring that led her to an Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles (2012). Imagine all the prayers.” So says Circe, a sly, petulant, and finally commanding voice that narrates the entirety of Miller’s dazzling second novel. The mystery is cleverly woven, and slowly building tension will keep readers involved until the denouement.Ī retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch.
Shardlake’s fourth adventure is packed with fascinating historical detail and contemporary lessons. The battle between religious fanatics and the dangerous courtly intrigue nearly overwhelms the clever lawyer’s considerable skills. The chief suspect is a doctor and former monk who Harsnet thinks is possessed by the devil and the others think is mad. At length he realizes that the horrific crimes are based upon events in the Book of Revelation. Because the political implications of the unfolding series of murders could damage the Protestant cause, Shardlake, aided by his Jewish assistant Jack Barak and a clever Moorish doctor, agrees to help solve the mystery.
When his friend is found in a fountain with his throat slit, Matthew is furious that the courts and assistant coroner Harsnet have stonewalled until Harsnet reveals that Archbishop Cranmer is behind a cover-up. London is in turmoil as Henry drifts toward a popeless Catholicism while the Protestant faction at court plot to maintain their power.
A sickly king is seeking to add Catherine Parr to his roster of wives. It’s 1543, and hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, a serjeant in the Court of Requests, is carefully avoiding any political involvement that could lead to the type of trouble he’s narrowly escaped in the past ( Sovereign, 2007). When a lawyer’s friend is murdered in Henry VIII’s England, he vows to solve the crime.
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