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Start with Dissolution and read the seven Shardlake novels in the order they were published. C. J. Sansom wrote them in chronological order, so publication order and story order are the same thing, running from 1537 to 1549. Below you will find the full list, the years each book covers, his two standalone novels, and what changed after his death in 2024.
Reading on Kindle? Some titles in long series rotate in and out of Kindle Unlimited. Check the series page on Amazon before you buy each book separately.
The Shardlake series in order
Matthew Shardlake is a London lawyer working in the last decade of Henry VIII’s reign and the troubled years just after it. Each novel is a self-contained murder investigation, but every one is pinned to a real event of the period. The titles are the same in the US and the UK; American editions are published by Mulholland Books, an imprint of Little, Brown.
| # | Title | Published | Set in | Backdrop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dissolution | 2003 | 1537 | Thomas Cromwell’s dissolution of the monasteries |
| 2 | Dark Fire | 2004 | 1540 | Cromwell’s fading position after the king’s failed marriage to Anne of Cleves; the hunt for “Greek fire” |
| 3 | Sovereign | 2006 | 1541 | Henry VIII’s royal progress to York |
| 4 | Revelation | 2008 | 1543 | Reformation London, with killings shaped by the Book of Revelation |
| 5 | Heartstone | 2010 | 1545 | War with France, the Battle of the Solent and the sinking of the Mary Rose |
| 6 | Lamentation | 2014 | 1546 | Catherine Parr’s book The Lamentation of a Sinner and the burning of Anne Askew |
| 7 | Tombland | 2018 | 1549 | The reign of the boy king Edward VI and Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk |
The gaps between books matter less than you might expect. Each one opens with Shardlake in a new situation, and the years in between are explained briefly as the story gets going. Tombland jumps furthest, picking up two years after Henry VIII’s death.
Why order matters in this series
You could read any single Shardlake novel and follow the mystery. What you would lose is the slow build of the man himself.
Shardlake begins the series working for Thomas Cromwell. Dissolution opens with Cromwell sending him to a monastery to look into the murder of one of the king’s commissioners, and his loyalties are fairly simple at that point. They do not stay that way. Over the following books his patrons change, with Archbishop Cranmer and later Queen Catherine Parr among them, and the political ground shifts under him with every turn in Henry’s marriages and religious policy. Friendships formed in one book carry real weight in later ones. Jack Barak, his sharp-tongued assistant, first appears in book two.
The history also stacks. The series moves through the fall of a chief minister, a royal tour of the north, a naval disaster and a dangerous moment for a queen. Sansom wrote each novel knowing the reader had lived through the earlier ones alongside Shardlake, and the later books lean on that. Reading Lamentation before Dark Fire means meeting people whose history with Shardlake you do not yet know.
Where to start
We recommend Dissolution for nearly every reader. It introduces Shardlake and Cromwell from the beginning, and its setting, a monastery under investigation by the crown, works as a classic closed-circle mystery.
Two exceptions are worth mentioning. A reader who has already watched the 2024 TV series knows the main shape of Dissolution, though the book differs in places and is still worth reading first. A reader drawn to a specific event, such as the Mary Rose, could pick up Heartstone on its own and follow the plot. They would simply be meeting several long-running characters halfway through their story.
C. J. Sansom’s standalone novels
Sansom wrote two novels outside the Shardlake series. Both are set in the twentieth century and neither requires any knowledge of the Tudor books.
- Winter in Madrid (2006). Set mainly in 1940, in Franco’s Madrid after the Spanish Civil War. Harry Brett, a British soldier wounded at Dunkirk, is recruited by the Secret Service to go to Spain posing as an embassy interpreter.
- Dominion (2012). An alternate history set in the early 1950s. Its premise is that Lord Halifax, not Winston Churchill, became prime minister in May 1940 and made peace with Germany, leaving Britain a Nazi satellite state. It won the 2013 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.
Either one works as a starting point for a reader who prefers the World War II era to the Tudors. Neither connects to the other.
Sansom’s death and the unfinished eighth book
C. J. Sansom died on April 27, 2024, at the age of 71. He had been living with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, since a diagnosis in 2012. In 2022 the Crime Writers’ Association gave him its Cartier Diamond Dagger for his contribution to the genre.
He had planned to follow Shardlake into the reign of Elizabeth I, and at the time of his death he was working on a new Shardlake novel. Reports said his illness had made progress very slow. No completed eighth novel has been published, so Tombland stands as the final book in the series.
The TV series vs the books
The Shardlake TV series premiered on May 1, 2024, four days after Sansom’s death. In the US it streams on Hulu; in the UK and most other countries it is on Disney+. All four episodes were released at once.
The show adapts Dissolution only. Arthur Hughes plays Matthew Shardlake, Sean Bean plays Thomas Cromwell, and Anthony Boyle plays Jack Barak. The series was directed by Justin Chadwick, with scripts by Stephen Butchard.
The biggest change involves Barak. In the novel, Shardlake travels to the monastery with Mark Poer, a young assistant, and Barak does not appear until Dark Fire. The show drops Mark and moves Barak into the first story. Butchard explained the change by saying the screen needed two characters who push against each other, while Mark served the book’s more internal style.
The series was cancelled after one season, so there is no screen version of the later books. Viewers who want to know what happens next will have to go to Dark Fire.
Buying the Shardlake books as a gift
For someone new to Sansom, the first book on its own is the safer gift. Dissolution tells you quickly whether a reader enjoys dense Tudor detail and a slow, careful investigation. If they do, the other six are easy to add later.
For a confirmed historical fiction reader, a full run of the series makes a bigger present. Sets and bundles vary by retailer and edition, so check that all seven titles are included and that the covers match before ordering. You can compare what is currently offered here: The Shardlake Series 7 Books Collection Set By C. J. Sansom.
On formats, a few practical points:
- Trade paperbacks are lighter to hold than hardcovers, which matters for the longer later books such as Tombland.
- Ebooks suit readers who travel or who prefer adjustable type.
- Unabridged audiobooks are available; Steven Crossley narrates the US editions of Lamentation and Tombland. Check the narrator for each title if consistency matters to the listener.
A viewer who enjoyed the Hulu series is a natural recipient for Dissolution paired with Dark Fire, since the second book continues the story the show began.
Frequently asked questions
How many Shardlake books are there?
There are seven: Dissolution, Dark Fire, Sovereign, Revelation, Heartstone, Lamentation and Tombland, published between 2003 and 2018.
Is publication order the same as chronological order?
Yes. Each novel is set later than the one before it, from 1537 in Dissolution to 1549 in Tombland, so there is only one reading order to follow.
Will there be an eighth Shardlake novel?
Sansom was working on an eighth book when he died in April 2024. No finished version has been published, and Tombland is the last complete Shardlake novel.
Which book is the Shardlake TV series based on?
The four-episode 2024 series adapts the first novel, Dissolution. It streams on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ elsewhere, and it was not renewed for a second season.
Are Winter in Madrid and Dominion connected to Shardlake?
No. Both are standalone novels set in the twentieth century, Winter in Madrid in 1940 Spain and Dominion in an alternate 1950s Britain. They can be read in any order and at any point.