Interred With Their Bones
Non-series
Jennifer Lee
Carrell
Plume (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-452-28989-0 (0452289890)
ISBN-13: 978-0-452-28989-5 (9780452289895)
Publication Date: August 2008
List Price: $15.00
Synopsis (from
the publisher): On the eve of the Globe’s production of
Hamlet, Shakespeare scholar and theater director Kate
Stanley’s eccentric mentor Rosalind Howard gives her a
mysterious box, claiming to have made a groundbreaking discovery. But
before she can reveal it to Kate, the Globe burns to the ground and Roz
is found dead ... murdered precisely in the manner of
Hamlet’s father. Inside the box Kate finds the first piece in
a Shakespearean puzzle, setting her on a deadly, high-stakes treasure
hunt.
From London to Harvard to the American West, Kate races to evade a
killer and decipher a tantalizing string of clues, hidden in the words
of Shakespeare, that may unlock literary history’s greatest
secret.
Review:
Jennifer Lee Carrell's debut mystery, Interred With Their Bones,
is the gripping story of a pursuit against time and life itself to find
the 1st Folio, a collection of the first works of William Shakespeare.
On a midsummer's day in 2004, Katherine J. Stanley, director of the
theatrical group at the Globe Theatre, a replica of
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre which burned to the ground in
June, 1613) opens with their performance of
Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Before the performance, Rosalind Howard, Kate’s former
professor, comes to the theatre with a gift wrapped box for Kate. She
tells Kate she has made a ground-breaking discovery but she
needs Kate’s help. Before the evening is over the Globe
Theatre is set afire, and Roz is found dead in the ruins -- killed in
the same manner as Hamlet’s father. Is this an improbable
coincidence or was it planned? With nothing to go on but a brooch and a
cryptic note found in the box Roz had given her, Kate and
Roz’s nephew Ben set out to try to find
Roz’s discovery. The journey takes Kate and Ben from
Europe to America and back again, followed all the way by a sinister
shadow of a man who is also hunting for the secret. While Kate and Ben
continue their investigation more people are murdered in a
Shakespearian style. Although she has resolved to continue, as she gets
closer to the truth she begins to wonder if the solution is worth the
lives lost, which now possibly include Ben’s and her own.
The premise upon which Interred
With Their Bones is based is itself a literary mystery. It
has been suggested that William Shakespeare's plays (his tragedies,
comedies, tragicomedies, sonnets, and more) were not written by him at
all. Stratfordian scholars strongly believe Shakespeare wrote the work
attributed to him; the Shakespearean Oxford Society argues otherwise,
that his name was merely ascribed to the work of contemporary
playwrights, most notably Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Would
these organizations resort to murder to promote (or protect) their
cause? Who truly wrote the words, "The evil that men do lives after
them, The good is oft interred with their bones"?
Interred With
Their Bones
is a remarkable novel that throughout maintains the
drama, ambiguity, and suspense surrounding the authenticity of
Shakespeare's literary canon. Though some passages are a bit confusing,
the pace of the
narrative will keep the pages turning.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Interred With Their Bones and to Penguin for providing a trade paperback edition of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Omnimystery keywords for Interred With Their Bones
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Location(s) referenced: Stratford, Oxford, Boston.
