License to Quill

October 12, 2015
Della Quercia, who successfully blended steampunk and humor in The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy (2014), falls short of that standard in this mildly amusing Tudor historical, in which Thomas Walsingham, an intelligence operative in the service of Elizabeth I, stages Christopher Marlowe’s murder in 1593 to give his agent the chance for a peaceful retirement. The man who administers the supposedly fatal stab wound turns out to be William Shakespeare. In 1604, Guy Fawkes, “a man of many faces,” asks Shakespeare to write a “tragedy about the abuse of power” set in Scotland, a politically delicate request. The playwright reports the request to Walsingham, who asks him to go along with Fawkes’s scheme. The conceit has possibilities, but della Quercia overeggs the pudding by making his hero a 17th-century James Bond. Walsingham, who’s referred to as W, has an attractive assistant named Miss Penny. Shakespeare becomes a member of the Ordnance Office, thus a “Double-O” operative. Many readers will wish for more subtlety. Agent: Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger.

October 15, 2015
Once more into the breech with quirky historical fiction: della Quercia (The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy, 2014) turns the Gunpowder Plot into a stage for Will Shakespeare to assume the role of a 17th-century James Bond. The premise is simple: Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe are drawn into Guy Fawkes' revolutionary schemes. With Spanish-English-Ottoman conspiracies and Roman Catholic attempts to subvert Protestant expansionism, brilliant young Marlowe becomes the Venetian eyes and ears of Sir Thomas Walsingham, the realm's spymaster. In London, Guy Fawkes persuades--threatens?--Will into writing a special play. Opening night will ignite a rebellious spark when Double, double, toile and trouble is declaimed, a line somehow related to "cunning folk" (Celtic witches) Fawkes' conspirators have recruited into their rebellious plot. Loyal Will informs Walsingham, who dispatches him to Sir Francis Bacon, irascible genius chief of the Ordnance Office. The narrative is dotted with footnotes identifying historical gems--for example, the way Venice was a refuge for Europe's persecuted Jews. But it's the characters, real and imagined, who race into memory--Will, wily and loyal; Marlowe, courageous and hedonistic; Bianca, the Dark Lady, peasant-born Jewish converso-turned-nun, then spy and assassin, then Shakespeare's lover. Della Quercia beautifully describes a plague-riven London ripe with "horses, hagglers, beggars, thieves, prostitutes, clowns, jugglers, jargon, gossip, and swearing" and the sorcerer's dark lair in Warkwickshire's Forest of Arden. Full of puns--"Bless my sole "--and wordplay--"woad warriors"--this historical thriller is also an homage to Ian Fleming's James Bond-ian world: Will becomes a "Double OO operative" and reports to Sir Thomas Walsingham, who's known as "W" and has a secretary named Penny, who fancies the agent. Add bull-baiting, human sacrifice, gruesome executions, and an epic London street battle, and what results is an erudite tour de force.

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December 1, 2015
William Shakespeare as James Bond? Here the bard is an agent of spymaster Thomas Walsingham (called W), who sends Will to be outfitted by Sir Francis Bacon at the Ordnance Office (Double O) with such goodies as an explosive pocket watch, a sword that's a firearm, and playing cards filled with poisons. Recruited by English conspirators to write a play set in Scotland that includes three witches reciting a certain chant, Shakespeare follows the group, headed by Guy Fawkes, deep into Arden forest. There Will witnesses a meeting with witches, who sacrifice three English priests as the conspirators make three requests to help them take over England. Meanwhile, in Italy, former agent Christopher Marlowe (his death staged before he was exiled) also becomes involved in deadly activities connected to the planned takeover. (Marlowe also is a spy in Phillip DePoy's upcoming A Prisoner in Malta) Della Quercia follows The Great Abraham Lincoln Pocket Watch Conspiracy (2014) with this beguiling tale of espionage and derring-do. An entertaining, meticulously researched response to questions about Shakespeare's authorship and the haunting aspect of Macbeth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)