Time's Fool

Devoted Shakespeare fans may not appreciate this portrait of the Bard as an old man falsely accused and wrongly imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. He struggles to solve the mystery of who is out to ruin him and why. The fate of the young boy who could confirm that arson took place, as well as the dismal circumstances and unbearably sad appearance of the Bard's Dark Lady of the Sonnets, renders this a depressing listen. Tony Jay's beautiful reading and sensitive interpretation of the story, however, do much to compensate for the woeful plot as he conveys the dreary reality of London's criminal underbelly of the time. L.C. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine

May 3, 2004
At the start of Leonard's literate and entertaining historical, set in 1603 and narrated with brio by the Bard himself, the Dark Lady of the sonnets lures her former lover, prosperous playwright Will Shakespeare, to a reunion tryst. Now wretched with the pox and mired in poverty, she threatens England's literary hero with exposure and disgrace unless he pays her a considerable sum of money. Moments later, a suspicious fire breaks out and she leaps to her death. Bewildered by the whole sordid affair, Will visits royal courts and squalid London byways in an effort to seek out possible enemies who might want to ruin him. Aphorisms from poems and plays are neatly woven into Will's encounters with self-important luminaries like Lord Cecil, the king's "Master High and Mighty," with obsequious servants and even with fishmongers who mug him in a back alley late one night. Murder and intrigue backstage at the Globe implicate poor Will in the death of a young boy suspected of having illicit relations with him. Seeing himself as the "Time's fool" of his sonnet, Will becomes an appealingly human figure, anxious about the future yet filled with a refreshing optimism. Shakespeare fans will delight in this witty caper. Agent, Elizabeth Winick at McIntosh & Otis. (July 6)

FYI:
Tourney is also the author of
Knaves Templar (1991) and other titles in his Elizabethan mystery series.