Dark Fire by C.J. Sansom is the second book of seven in the Matthew Shardlake mysteries series. I had a blast with Absolution, and so I expect similar results with Dark Fire. The novel plays in a very similar light in that our main detective is once again commissioned by none other than Thomas Cromwell, lead reformist of the church in England, to spear up an investigation that can give England a huge military advantage over its enemies. With the fear of Spain and France uniting to conquer England to have it return to its original papists roots, the king is desperate to gain any advantages. The ancient recipe for creating Greek Fire, once thought to be lost hundreds and thousands of years ago, might just do the trick, if only Matthew can find it in time.

Dark Fire reminded me a lot of Katherine Addison’s Goblin Emperor series, especially between the main protagonists of Thara Celehar and Matthew Shardlake. The vibes between the two are very similar, and both approaches their problems in a very calm and methodical way. Matthew is not a man of action, and so he must use his wits to get the information that he needs. This time around, he’s paired with Barak, sent by Cromwell himself to “help” Matthew with his dilemmas. I found the pairing to work, although it’s nothing special and haven’t been done or seen before.

While the mystery itself is a simple quest of find and fetch, I was sorely disappointed with the mystery reveal. All the back and forth traveling done between Matthew and Barak throughout London to discover the mystery, I felt didn’t justify the weak reveal when it came to a close towards the end. It also didn’t help that there weren’t any other more memorable characters throughout the story. The interactions and conversations with Cromwell are usually important as he was one of the most feared man in England during those turbulent times and there were some interesting pieces with Lady Honor, but that’s about it.

Dark Fire, although not considered a disappointment, is however a step backwards. It felt overly long for no apparent reason and with less interesting characters than the first. The bland cast of villains along with the lackluster reveal forces me to pause on this series until the next book in the series. I do, however, continue to enjoy the slow and methodical approach of Matthew Shardlake’s detective ways. I’ll likely need to see improvements in book three, otherwise it will be a hard decision on whether to continue or not.