Tamburlaine Must Die - Softcover

Welsh, Louise

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006395740 ISBN 13: 9780006395744

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2006

Synopsis

The author of the multiple international prize-winning novel TheCutting Room turns to 16th century London, England, and the infamousChristopher Marlowe in this dark and dangerous novel for lovers of intrigue andmystery. Summoned to London at the command of the judicial Star Chamber, Marloweis given three days to defend himself against charges of treason and heresy byuncovering the author of pamphlets signed by Tamburlaine, the playwright’smost bloodthirsty villain.

Tamburlaine Must Die is the vivid and addictive tale of thedeath of an imperilled man who dared to defy both God and state. With grittydetails of lust, treachery and revenge, Louise Welsh paints a portrait of adissolute city and a desperate time.

About this title

About the Author:

LOUISE WELSH’s internationally bestselling debut novel, The Cutting Room, won the British Crime Writers’ Association Creasey Dagger for the best first crime novel, among many other prizes. Her second novel, Tamburlaine Must Die, also received critical acclaim for its daring treatment of the last days of Christopher Marlowe. Louise Welsh lives in Glasgow.

From Publishers Weekly:

Christopher Marlowe, "playwright, scenester, and celebrated wit," was a superstar in Elizabethan London. Unfortunately for him, Elizabethan London was a risky place to attract notice. In Welsh's slim, taut follow-up to her 2003 debut, The Cutting Room, she reimagines the bitter end of the great dramatist's life, retold in his own words on the eve of his still-unsolved murder. The beginning of the end comes in the form of a messenger from the queen's Privy Council, summoning him back to the city from a comfortable ensconcement at his patron's country house. Turns out that heretical verses signed by Tamburlaine, his most famous (and famously ruthless) creation, have been turning up all over plague-decimated London in his absence. Faced with charges of heresy and blasphemy, Marlowe has an unspecified, "but clearly short," window of opportunity to offer up a more appealing scapegoat in his place. Welsh doesn't waste a word on any of the florid romanticizing so common in historical fiction: no heaving, corseted breasts or speeding steeds here. Just a hard, sharp little rapier of a thriller/mystery that packs a punishing schedule of sex, violence, wheeling and double-dealing into its brief length. The tension is unabated throughout this frantic, 72-hour dash among backstabbers, spies, murderers and prostitutes—even as Marlowe realizes that not even he will be able to talk his way out of this one. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0006395740
• ISBN 13: 9780006395744
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160