It is the seventh book in the Matthew Shardlake series, following 2014's Lamentation.

[1] Set in the summer of 1549, the story deals with the investigation of a murder in Norfolk.

Tombland's etymology is Danish in origin meaning 'empty space' or 'open land', and in the 11th century the area was home to an Anglo-Scandinavian marketplace.

Stephanie Merritt writing for The Guardian commented that the novel is 'more of a grand historical epic than a tightly packed whodunnit.

'[3] In a similar vein Andrew Taylor writing for The Spectator praised the book as 'a Tudor epic disguised as an historical crime novel.