Sovereign by C.J. Sansom is the third book of seven in his Matthew Shardlake Mysteries series. After having been a bit disappointed with Dark Fire, Sovereign puts the series right back on track to my liking. At almost 700 pages, I found myself quite surprised, yet once again, at how fast I devoured it in less than a week. However, it’s still not without its fault. But at this rate, I’m willing to accept them for what they are as the series continues. At the heart of Sovereign, we follow Matthew Shardlake and his assistant, Barak, to the northern city of England, Yorkshire. Having a rebellion just squashed there by King Henry the VIII, a Progress is made where the king and his court will journey to the north to require the population there to swear fealty. After witnessing a simple murder by Brother Shardlake, one mystery blends into the next and soon enough, the question of King Henry the VIII’s bloodline and rights to the throne, is raised. Once again, Brother Shardlake is thrown into the investigation whether he wants to or not and one with serious implications for the whole of England.

One of the primary reasons I like reading this series is, of course, for the mystery itself, but also for how peaceful and methodical Brother Shardlake goes about it. Set in a period where much of England was embroiled in turmoil due to the reformation of the churches and a tyrant king, there’s just something comforting and rewarding when reading this series. Yes, it’s another typical slow burner and keeps much of the same formula as the other previous books, so if you’ve read those, then Sovereign is nothing new. In fact, I’ll just assume that the other four books in the series will be much the same in terms of pacing and length. However, that’s not to say that the book is not with its horrors. Brother Shardlake continues to get humiliated and debased in regard to his deformities. True to the historical period as much as possible, prisoner torture, unjust murders and sycophants run abound. To help balance Brother Shardlake out a bit, we get Barak. Almost a complete opposite of each other, it’s nice to see them two working together for the majority of the story.

I’ll likely continue to rant about the length of each book until the last one in the series, assuming I get there. I just can’t help but think that it could have been shorter yet still not miss anything. It does help a bit that many of the conversations between characters are insightful. I truly dreaded and felt sorry whenever Brother Shardlake bumped into Sir Richard Rich or when he had to report to Sir William Maleverer. As to the ending, I admit that I got stumped. Although I had a feeling of the person involved, I simply could not guess as to why or how until the end. So, good job to the author for that.

I’m glad I continued with this series. At four more books to go, I think it would be wise to spread this out like I’ve done here between books, rather than binge them like I’d have in my earlier days. I look at this series as a comfort read whenever I need to take a break away from my non-fictional reads. In a way, this blend of historical fiction serves my purposes just as well. The events of the mid 1500s in England were very turbulent times. Some of the events and characters in Sovereign had me learning more about them immediately upon completion of the book.