Revelation by C.J. Ransom

Matthew Shardlake is a lawyer, and also a hunchback, but it is his friendship with another lawyer named Roger Eliard, and Roger's wife Dorothy that sets him on the trail of another murderer.

Dorothy was someone Matthew had been in love with, but believing that she could never love a man with his condition led him to not talk to her until it was too late, and she had already accepted a marriage proposal from Roger, Matthew's friend and partner. Now, after a party at the Eliard's residence, Roger confesses to Matthew that he is afraid that his many falls lately mean that he has falling sickness, also known as epilepsy. Matthew tells Roger that he should see Matthew's doctor, a half-Moorish ex-monk named Guy Malton, who found a new profession as a Doctor when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.

Meanwhile, Matthew has also been assigned the case of a young man named Adam Kite, who has been thrown into Bedlam because of his ceaseless praying. He seems to think that he has committed all the sins of the world, and is fearful of being thrown into Hell, so he beseeches God to forgive him, constantly, forgoing both food and rest. His parents want him released from Bedlam, because the keepers there mistreat him, allowing him to stay in dirty clothes and a cold room, and neglecting to feed him. Matthew meets with the parents and their parish Priest, a protestant, and recommends that Guy Malton be allowed to examine Adam to see if anything can be done for him.

Roger and Matthew meet with Guy and find he has taken on an apprentice, a young man named Piers. Piers's former master died of the Plague, and he seems a respectful young man, if given to listening at doors and keyholes. But Roger's condition isn't falling sickness, but something far more mundane: his two legs are of unequal length, and he requires a built-up heel for one shoe. Roger is relieved and praises Guy, then leaves to meet a new client before going home to his wife.

But the next morning, Matthew discovers Roger's body in a nearly-frozen fountain outside in the center of the street, along with two young boys. His throat has been slit, and the blood allowed to pour into the water, turning it red, before the body was dumped in. Matthew attempts to go to Dorothy and spare her the sight of Roger's body, but is too late, and she weeps and wails for her husband. Meanwhile, Matthew's man Barak traces the footsteps of the murderer before they can melt away with the snow or be obscured by those coming to the fountain, and finds that Roger was murdered in the Orchard behind the Inns of Court, then carried to the fountain, by a single set of bootprints.

Who could have murdered Roger? He seemed to have no enemies. But when the coroner's inquest ends with the coroner declaring he will find the murderer himself, and he turns down Matthew's help, Matthew promises Dorothy that he will find her husband's murderer and bring him to justice, all by himself if need be. When he goes outside to talk to the coroner, he finds him talking to a young, swaggering warrior who turns out to be Thomas Seymour, brother to one of Henry's former Queens. When Seymour and the coroner find that Matthew means to investigate the murder, they reluctantly take him into their confidence and take him to see Archbishop Cranmer. Cranmer tells Matthew that Roger's murder is not the first, that a physician to the wife of Lord Lattimer was the first to die, and he was found in a tide pool, the water also filled with blood.

Matthew, even though he never wanted anything to do with the court again, finds himself swearing to help them find the murderer in order to fulfill his promise to Dorothy Eliard. They soon discover that there have been three murders so far, and that they seem to be linked to the book of Revelation in the Bible, specifically to the three vials poured out on the land that brought pain and misery. The Killer seems to have judgement or Apocalypse mania, and seems to be killing people to correspond to the seven vials. With three already dead, though, will they be able to find him before he carries out his evil plan?

But while Matthew tries to track down the murderer, he must also deal with the case of Adam Kite, and discover what set off his religious mania and feeling that he had sinned every sin there was. Is there hope for him to recover? And Matthew's clerk Barak is having troubles with his wife, Tamasin. Can Matthew intercede and help them deal with the troubles besetting them? Or will his trying to help only make things worse?

But chasing the murderer isn't without its dangers. Matthew soon discovers that someone is very unhappy with him for looking into the murders and attempting to find the killer. When threats make no change in Matthew's attempts to track down the malefactor, Tamasin is attacked and Matthew himself is stabbed. But is the killer insane, or is he possessed by a devil? And can Matthew find him and discover his ultimate target before the killer succeeds in doing away with him?

This is a long book, one that, these days, I'd call "Harry Potter"-sized, being almost 530 pages long. But despite that, the book is well-written and easy to read. The reason for its great size is the large number of sub-plots twisting and twining through its pages, from the story dealing with Adam Kite, Barak and Tamasin, Guy Malton and Piers, and there is even one dealing with Matthew's fellow lawyer and adversary falling sick, and another dealing with how Matthew no longer really quite believes in Christianity, because he has seen so much evil in the world. Oh, and Thomas Seymour and how he wants to marry Catherine Parr, who Henry VIII has chosen to make his next queen. All these take up time and space, but are so skillfully interwoven in the plot that none of them impedes the main story, about the killer.

But because of all that, this book took a lot longer for me to read. I enjoyed the book, but at times it seemed like it took forever when I was actually reading it. The story, however, I found very gripping, and with all the other stuff going on, I simply couldn't tear myself away for more than a few minutes without going right back to it. Which meant I was reading everywhere, even while cooking dinner on the stove and in the oven. But you'll probably find yourself doing the same- it's just that good.

The author's afterword is dedicated to what probably set off the writing of this particular story- the treatment of mental illness during the period in question, much of which developed on the Four Humors theory of disease and personality, and the discovery that much of what doctors thought they knew about anatomy was wrong, given that anatomists were finally being allowed to study the insides of the human body. You can see some fairly modern attitudes towards mental illness developing, but a great many people thought that demonic possession was responsible for cases of violent mental illness.

This is an excellent book with a mystery that will keep you turning pages and be unable to put it down. As the book continues, it becomes a taut, keep you on the edge of your seat thriller as Matthew discovers the real killer and must race to stop him. Mystery fans will love this book and historical mystery fans will really love it. Highly recommended.