What is the name of the first 'Matthew Shardlake' novel?

The first Matthew Shardlake novel is Dissolution. Written by C. J. Sansom, it introduces the lawyer and investigator during the reign of Henry VIII, when England’s monasteries were being closed and their wealth transferred to the Crown.

Published in 2003, the novel is set in 1537. Thomas Cromwell sends Shardlake to the fictional coastal town of Scarnsea after one of Cromwell’s commissioners is murdered at a monastery. Shardlake must investigate while also helping carry out the monastery’s dissolution, creating a conflict between political power, religious reform and the search for truth.

Dissolution is both a historical mystery and the opening of the Shardlake series. Its title refers to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the Tudor government’s campaign against England’s monastic institutions. The next novel is Dark Fire, followed by Sovereign, Revelation and Heartstone, so those titles are later entries rather than possible answers to this question.

Sansom had a doctorate in history and worked as a solicitor before becoming a full-time writer, which helped give the series its legal and historical texture.