Black Death

May 15, 2017
Set in 1590, Trow’s delightful eighth Kit Marlowe mystery (after 2015’s Secret World) finds the playwright, poet, and spy looking into the death of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster. Marlowe suspects poisoning, the only clue a scant trace of residue in the goblet that Walsingham drank from just before his demise. Marlowe juggles the demands of theater owners for new material with his investigations, which often entail galloping around the country to meet with the outstanding minds of the period, including John Dee (famed occultist, mathematician, and sometime advisor to the queen) and Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland (aka the Wizard Earl). Many other real people sashay though the book, including Sir Walter Raleigh, impresario Philip Henslowe, poet Thomas Watson, and Will Shaxsper, “a second-rate actor and a fourth-rate playwright.” Insights into political chicanery, the rise of science over magic, and atavistic theatrical bitchery propel readers ever onward.

June 1, 2019
It's 1592, and the Black Death is rampant in London. But playwright and sometime amateur detective Kit Marlowe has other things on his mind. He's desperately trying to finish his latest play in time for its premiere at the Rose Theatre when a series of very odd things happens. First, an old enemy, Robert Greene, sends Kit a letter beseeching him to find out who is trying to murder Greene. Then the queen decides to shut down every theater in London to prevent the plague from spreading; the Rose's stage manager, Kit's friend Tom Sledd, goes missing; Sir Robert Cecil, the queen's spymaster, orders Kit to find out who killed his father's beloved nursemaid; and Kit finds himself reluctantly cast as the savior of Simon Forman, a man who calls himself a shaman but is, in fact, a dangerous sham. Despite the sometimes confusing multiple plots, readers will find themselves intrigued by Trow's fine tale, which is full of ribald humor, high-spirited adventure, intriguing twists, and realistic period ambience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2017
After Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster, dies, apparently of apoplexy, Walsingham's right-hand man, Nicholas Faunt, convinced his master was poisoned, turns to playwright, sometime spy, and brilliant amateur sleuth Christopher Marlowe to prove his case. Reluctantly, Marlowe takes on the case and soon discovers a viper's next of suspects, including Robert Cecil, who has eyed the spymaster role for years. Could his ambition have been at the root of Walsingham's murder? Marlowe is also looking closely at a group called the School of the Night, some of whose members, including Sir Walter Raleigh, have deep knowledge of poisons and the dark arts as well as motives for wanting Walsingham dead. As always, Trow provides fascinating period authenticity, a crackling plot, strong characters, and plenty of twists. Must reading for devotees of Elizabethan crime.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)