Plot twists worthy of The Da Vinci Code
dominate this agile first novel from Carrell (The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox
), a thriller involving a lost Shakespeare play, The History of Cardenio
. On a June day in 2004, at London’s rebuilt Globe theater, Rosalind Howard, “flamboyantly eccentric Harvard Professor of Shakespeare,” gives her friend Katharine Stanley, who’s directing a production of Hamlet
at the Globe, a small gold-wrapped box. That evening, a fire damages the Globe, where Roz is found murdered in the same manner as Hamlet’s father. Roz’s mysterious gift, which contains a Victorian mourning brooch decorated with flowers associated with Ophelia, propels Kate on a wild and wide-ranging quest that takes her to Utah; Arizona; Washington, D.C.; and back to London. Every step of the way, as the bodies pile up, Kate narrowly escapes becoming the next murder victim. From Shakespeare conferences to desert mines, from the present to the past, this spirited and action-packed novel delivers constant excitement. Foreign rights sold in 20 countries. (Sept.)
