Dissolution

Dissolution is the first in the phenomenal Shardlake series by
bestselling author, C. J. Sansom. It is 1537, a time of revolution
that sees the greatest changes in England since 1066. Henry VIII
has proclaimed himself Supreme Head of the Church and the country
is waking up to savage new laws, rigged trials and the greatest
network of informers ever seen. Under the order of Thomas Cromwell,
a team of commissioners is sent through the country to investigate
the monasteries. There can only be one outcome: the monasteries are
to be dissolved. But on the Sussex coast, at the monastery of
Scarnsea, events have spiralled out of control. Cromwell's
Commissioner Robin Singleton, has been found dead, his head severed
from his body. His horrific murder is accompanied by equally
sinister acts of sacrilege - a black cockerel sacrificed on the
altar, and the disappearance of Scarnsea's Great Relic. Dr Matthew
Shardlake, lawyer and long-time supporter of Reform, has been sent
by Cromwell to investigate. But Shardlake's investigation soon
forces him to question everything he hears, and everything that he
intrinsically believes . . .