The Shakespeare Secret by J.L. Carrell.
Jennifer Lee Carrell has a PhD in English and American literature from Harvard and has taught the History and Literature programme at the prestigious university - as well as directing Shakespeare for Harvard's Hyperion Theatre Company.
The plot - A woman is left to die as the rebuilt Globe theatre burns. Another woman is drowned in the manner of Ophelia, skirts swirling in the water. A professor has his throat slashed open on the steps of Washington's Capitol building. A deadly serial killer is on the loose, modelling his murders on Shakespeare's plays. But why is he killing? And how can he be stopped?
This was a desperate 3 for 2 purchase at Waterstone’s as I had run out of reading matter. Having said that, it turned out to be a good buy.
An enjoyable mixture of fact and fiction, the tale revolves around the possibility of the existence of a lost play by Shakespeare inspired by Cervantes' novel, Don Quixote, and the heroine, Kate Stanley’s quest to follow a trail of clues to locate the item before the dastardly serial killer. The book is written in the first person and is structured in five acts, much like a Shakespeare play would be, divided by an interlude which takes place in the 1600's, clever device. The character development is a bit thin on the ground probably as attention has been lavished mainly on the historical background and the development of the storyline.
JL’s narrative mixes fact and fiction in such a tight Gordian Knot that it’s difficult to extract one or the other, but I guess that’s what she set out to achieve. Do you have to be a Shakespeare buff to enjoy this book? Nah, just let the historical bits wash over you, it can sometimes get a bit heavy trying to sort out the Earl of This and the Countess of That. I was a bit perturbed that someone with a literary background should misquote “all that glisters is not gold” as “all that glitters...” (The Merchant of Venice, 1596 edition. Also, "All is not golde that glistereth." Thomas Becon The relikes of Rome, 1553), it certainly jarred with me.
The book ends with a section entitled "Author's Notes" in which JL gives an outline of what is real in the book i.e. the majority of historical characters, the lost play Cardenio and many of the places featured, but then she also admits the parts which were figments of her imagination i.e. a couple of characters, parts of the hidden book we don't know about, etc. So I guess, if you’re interested enough, you could explore the historical facts a little further. Overall, I’d recommend this book; it’s a fast-paced thriller and a jolly interesting read.
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