I agree with Colin Hamilton and the other reviewers who found this novel less than stellar. We may have different reasons, but the book did not hook me at all and I love British history and a story well told. I read it to the end because I thought I should as I had purchased the book. Of the appealing characters, Thomas Cromwell wasn't on my list although this was his story in many ways. Toward the end the pace seemed to pick up and though I and most readers knew the end, in many ways it couldn't have come sooner.