Magic in the Weave

Set in 1604, Clare’s outstanding fourth whodunit featuring former ship’s surgeon Gabriel Taverner (after 2020’s The Indigo Ghosts) centers on a group of actors who are performing Shakespeare plays in the West Country, because the plague has closed London’s theaters. In Plymouth, Taverner’s coroner friend, Theophilus Davey, is troubled by a fragmentary conversation he overhears in an alleyway between two actors, who refer to threats and an unspecified reason to have fled London apart from the plague. One of the pair remarks, “I fear for my life... and the death that stalks me is a particularly awful and long-drawn-out one that haunts me by day and night!” When one of the actors in the company later collapses, possibly from poison, it appears the thespians harbor a murderer in their ranks, and Taverner once again turns sleuth. Plausible period detail and characters who feel real bolster the involving plot, and the prose and pacing are both top-notch. The prolific Clare shows no sign of running out of steam. Agent: Sophie Gorell Barnes, MBA Literary (U.K.). (Feb.)