'Another clever criminal plunge into history' Guardian

On a foggy morning in 1602, a boyhood friend of Nick Revill arrives in London. When Peter Agate announces that he wants to try his hand at acting, what can Nick do but offer him a part with his own company, the Chamberlain's Men, who are putting on a private production of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida for the lawyers of Middle Temple.

Yet within days Peter Agate is dead, stabbed to death at Nick's lodgings - the beginning of a sequence of violent deaths, each somehow implicating Nick himself. To avoid the hangman's noose Nick must discover the real murderer among a cast of suspects, including an aristocratic brother and sister, a troublemaker from a rival company and an ex-actor who once saw the Devil himself on stage...

The fourth historical murder mystery in the Nick Revill series, set in the bustling theatrical world of William Shakespeare.

Praise for Philip Gooden:

'Highly entertaining' Sunday Times

'The witty narrative, laced with puns and word play so popular in this period, makes this an enjoyable racy tale' Sunday Telegraph

'The book has much in common with the film Shakespeare in Love - full of colourful characters . . . but the book has an underlying darkness' Crime Time

'Historical mystery fans are in for a treat' Publishers Weekly

About the Author
PHILIP GOODEN is a graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford. He writes books about language as well as historical crime novels. The former include Who's Whose? A No-Nonsense Guide to Easily-Confused Words, The Story of English, and (as co-author) Idiomantics and The Word at War. He has been nominated for a CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award.


Book Information
ISBN 9781472133601
Author Philip Gooden
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Constable
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 220g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 126mm * 24mm