The Playmaker

A thrilling romp through Elizabethan London, peopled with actors, imposters, spies, traitors--and a young apprentice in Shakespeare's theater company.

After the death of his mother, Richard Malory journeys to London--seeking his fortune and perhaps the father who abandoned him as a child. The year is 1597. Elizabeth is queen. Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain's men are packing the theater. And the heads of Catholic insurgents are impaled on the Tower gates. One 14-year-old boy, tossed into the teeming crowds, should arouse no one's interest.

But within a week of his arrival, Richard has been robbed, beaten, and threatened at knife-point. Someone wants him to leave London. Determined to figure out what he has stumbled into, Richard finds a place to hide--in plain sight but in disguise as a player on the stage.

J. B. Cheaney spins an intricate, atmospheric tale of a young man, finding his place in the world, surrounded by people who are acting--some for their living, some for their lives. Whom can he trust? Where do his loyalties lie? Must Richard play the part set out for him--or can he become the playmaker of his own life?

This is J. B. Cheaney's first novel.