Dissolution

In 'Dissolution', the first novel of the Shardlake series, Matthew Shardlake, a hunchbacked lawyer, is sent by Thomas Cromwell to investigate the murder of a king's commissioner at the monastery of St. Donatus in Scarnsea.

The story is set against the backdrop of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries and explores themes of religious reform, political intrigue, and crime solving in Tudor England.