Dark Fire

It is 1540 and the hottest summer of the sixteenth century. Matthew Shardlake, believing himself out of favour with Thomas Cromwell, is busy trying to maintain his legal practice and keep a low profile. But his involvement with a murder case, defending a girl accused of brutally murdering her young cousin, brings him once again into contact with the king's chief minister - and a new assignment. An official of the Court of Augmentations has discovered the secret of Greek Fire, the legendary substance by which the Byzantines destroyed the Arab navies; lost for centuries. When Shardlake is sent to recover it, he finds the official and his alchemist brother horribly murdered - the formula has disappeared.