A MYSTERY OF ERRORS

Fledgling playwright William Shakespeare teams up with aspiring actor Symington Smythe to solve an Elizabethan mystery that could end in murder. 10,000 first printing.

In the ebullient spirit of the hit movie Shakespeare in Love, young William Shakespeare takes center stage as an aspiring playwright and sleuth in this lighthearted historical from SF author Hawke, absorbing everything he sees and goes through, transmuting it into literary gold. On the road to London, Will meets Symington Smythe II, a starstruck, would-be actor, also journeying to the capital for the first time. Smythe, who's large, na ve and honest (his new friend renames him "Tuck"), and Will, who's quick-witted, sharp-tongued, hard-drinking and brimming with confidence, make an appealing pair. Their encounters with a noble highwayman; with a fellow poet who rescues them from a tavern brawl; and particularly with Elizabeth Darcie, the daughter of a wealthy merchant who's trying to marry her off against her will (sound familiar?), provide grist. Will's efforts to rise in the ranks of the Queen's Men, the theater troupe they join as ostlers, and Tuck's efforts to help Elizabeth foil her father's marriage scheme supply the grit. Shakespeare would have appreciated the confusion of identities that surrounds and confounds the hapless Elizabeth, but he might have quailed at the misidentification that makes him the target of hired killers. Happily, all's well that ends well, and it appears that the budding playwright might take future, and welcome, bows in his new guise as sleuth. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This entertaining novel will appeal most to Shakespeare buffs and readers of historical mysteries, but everyone should have a good time. Hawke tells the tale of Symington Smythe, a young man with his heart set on being an actor (though he's never actually had a job on the stage); Smythe hooks up with a young would-be playwright by the name of Will Shakespeare. Together they travel to London, where they fall in with a troupe of accomplished players and find themselves, almost immediately, embroiled in a labyrinthine plot that may cost them their lives. Hawke is the author of many successful fantasy novels; this is his first mystery, but you'd never know it. He has a sure hand, an eye for detail and character, and he mixes historical fact and fiction in an altogether delightful manner. This has the makings of an excellent series. David Pitt
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