#109 in Crime & mystery
Dark Fire
- 579
- Pages
- about 11 h
- Reading time
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
“Dark Fire” is an atmospheric Tudor mystery that sends the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake after the lost formula for Greek fire. C. J. Sansom runs two investigations side by side, one rooted in a family and one in court politics. The period detail is earthy and vivid, and Shardlake gains a cynical companion from the streets. At nearly six hundred pages, it rewards readers happy to settle into a long historical puzzle.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Dark Fire is a historical mystery novel by British author C. J. Sansom. It is Sansom's second novel, released in 2004, and also the second in the Matthew Shardlake Series. Set in the 16th century during the reign of Tudor King Henry VIII, it follows hunchbacked lawyer Shardlake's search to recover the long-lost formula for Greek fire.
Reading order · Shardlake series
Full order & progress →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.2 across 59 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 29% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Crime & mystery average of 7.6. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 8.2 | 59 | 100% |
Frequently asked
How long is Dark Fire?
It has 579 pages — longer than 93% of the ranked books in Crime & mystery.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Crime & mystery — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
