LAMENTATION.

UK thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn. [Complete nuber line 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2.]FINE-/VG. No owner inscrptn but price-clip to dw/dj.Bright,crisp,clean,matt,wrap-around colour photographic illustrated dw/dj,with capitalised,glossy, embossed gilt-lettered title,capitalised,glossy white-lettered author name and capitalised NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER,and a single critic's white-lettered review; spine/backstrip with similarly coloured+lettered author+ title as front and publisher's capitalised, white-lettered+ illustrated colophon to foot of same,rear panel with bright, crisp,gilt-lettered previous book titles from the Shardlake series with critics' white-lettered reviews. Some minimal shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners.All corner tips of dw/dj with miniscule rubbing and reciprocal paper loss,both head+foot of spine/backstrip minimally bumped with reciprocal creases and both with a couple of tiny snicks – but no other tears or splits present.Concomitant,miniscule rubbing on board's corner tips and head+foot of spine/backstrip.Top+fore-edges bright and generally clean without foxing; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - text body near pristine - one intentional dog-ear reading crease to pp25/6, no other corner tips dog-ear creases to any other pages. Publisher's bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered,original plain pale purple paper-covered boards with bright,crisp, blocked gilt lettered spine/backstrip,a gold coloured headband with sewn-in gold silk bookmark ribbon,and immaculate repeated London-area coloured map, illustrated endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,vii-xpp+1- 641pp [paginated] includes Author's Note,Principal Dramatis Personae list,53 chapters+Epilogue,author's Acknowledgements and 22pp Historical Notes; plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages,and a dedication with blank reverse. Visually the exterior appearance is acceptable,and particularly internally,the book is in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation.It is only the exterior faults that prevents a slightly higher grading especially for the dw/dj. Despite them, it really is still an acceptable example for its cleanliness and brightness. Matthew Shardlake is back in Lamentation. Summer,1546.King Henry VIII is slowly, painfully dying. His Protestant and Catholic councillors are engaged in a final and decisive power struggle; whoever wins will control the government of Henry's successor, eight-year-old Prince Edward. As heretics are hunted across London, and the radical Protestant Anne Askew is burned at the stake, the Catholic party focus their attack on Henry's sixth wife, Matthew Shardlake's old mentor, Queen Catherine Parr. Shardlake, still haunted by events aboard the warship Mary Rose the year before, is working on the Cotterstoke Will case, a savage dispute between rival siblings. Then, unexpectedly, he is summoned to Whitehall Palace and asked for help by his old patron, the now beleaguered and desperate Queen. For Catherine Parr has a secret. She has written a confessional book, amentation of a Sinner, so radically Protestant that if it came to the King's attention it could bring both her and her sympathizers crashing down. But, although the book was kept secret and hidden inside a locked chest in the Queen's private chamber, it has - inexplicably - vanished. Only one page has been found, clutched in the hand of a murdered London printer. Shardlake's investigations take him on a trail that begins among the backstreet printshops of London but leads him and Jack Barak into the dark and labyrinthine world of the politics of the royal court; a world he had sworn never to enter again. Loyalty to the Queen will drive him into a swirl of intrigue inside Whitehall Palace, where Catholic enemies and Protestant friends can be equally dangerous, and the political opportunists, who will follow the wind wherever it blows, more dangerous than either. The theft of Queen Catherine's book proves to be connected to the terrible death of Anne Askew, while his involvement with the Cotterstoke litigants threatens to bring Shardlake himself to the stake. The previous books in the bestselling Shardlake series are 'Dissolution', 'Dark Fire', 'Sovereign', 'Revelation' -see my book ID rja1053823 for an UK,HB+ dw/dj,1st edn example) and 'Heartstone'. Please contact seller,because of the weight of this item, for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! N.B. ALL buyers please note,that stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch,especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of any inexpensive book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard US AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always. **