Episode 5

London, 1543. A serial killer prowls the city, each death worse than the last - but what links the victims?

Shardlake has been asked by Archbishop Cranmer to conduct a secret investigation and catch the killer before word of the bloodshed reaches the King: one of the victims was close to Catherine Parr, Henry's current romantic obsession, and an ally of the reformers' cause; Cranmer knows that such a taint will ruin any chance of her becoming Queen. While pursuing a lead, Shardlake has been stabbed by an unknown attacker in a crowded street.

Shardlake must also attend to another pressing case, that of a young man driven mad by the conviction that he is damned and that the Lord has forsaken him.

Adam Kite is being held in the Bedlam for his own safety - his wild ranting about Hell and damnation verge on heresy - but Shardlake hopes his friend Guy the Apothecary can help ease his suffering.

CJ Sansom's Tudor crime novel stars Justin Salinger as detective Matthew Shardlake.

Shardlake ..... Justin Salinger
Barak ..... Bryan Dick
Harsnet ..... Carl Prekopp
Guy ..... Vincent Ebrahim
Adam ..... Luke MacGregor
Cantrell ..... David Seddon
Lockley ..... Patrick Brennan
Bunce ..... Clare Perkins
Meaphon ..... Sean Baker
Bystander ..... Kirsty Oswald

Other parts played by the cast.

Dramatised by Colin MacDonald.

Director: Kirsteen Cameron

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2017.