Publishers Weekly
06/23/2014
In Trow’s so-so sixth Tudor mystery featuring playwright Christopher “Kit” Marlowe (after 2013’s Crimson Rose), Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth’s legendary spymaster, dispatches Kit to the Isle of Wight in search of missing spy Harry Hasler, whose last communiqué made a vague reference to danger. Posing as a writer looking for inspiration, Kit arrives on Wight determined to learn whether there’s any link between Hasler’s disappearance and the ongoing threat to England from Spain. Kit is present at the discovery of a strangled corpse, which, to his relief, is not Hasler but rather a farmer, Walter Hunnybun. Hunnybun isn’t the last murder victim the agent encounters while seeking his quarry, but the whodunit isn’t Trow’s best. The tongue-in-cheek tone, especially evident toward the end, undercuts any attempt at gritty realism, making this less engaging than similarly themed historical mysteries. (Aug.)
Booklist
Trow’s ability to evoke the sights, sounds, and smells of Elizabethan England, combined with captivating characters and a compellingly twisted plot, makes for yet another winning entry in this delightfully entertaining series.
Booklist
Trow’s ability to evoke the sights, sounds, and smells of Elizabethan England, combined with captivating characters and a compellingly twisted plot, makes for yet another winning entry in this delightfully entertaining series.
Library Journal
★ 07/01/2014
The enmity between Spain and England reached a crescendo in 1588, the year the Spanish Armada attempted to attack English shores. For Christopher Marlowe and his fellow spies, these are the nervous weeks before the real confrontation. No one is to be trusted, and an intelligencer has gone missing on England's key watch point, the Isle of Wight. Sir Francis Walsingham sends Marlowe over to investigate. Once there, Marlowe wonders about the sanity of the locals. The governor behaves oddly, his wife is an unabashed adulteress, and the pirate industry is thriving. Meanwhile, tension builds as sailors, both British and Spanish, curse the weather and pray for wind. VERDICT Trow successfully combines adventure, wit, and history (and, yes, a mystery) in this winning historical series featuring the real-life playwright in his undercover role as an intelligencer for Queen Elizabeth I. The dashing spy makes it all look so easy. This entry (number six after Crimson Rose) is particularly engaging and would be no problem for readers new to the series.
Kirkus Reviews
2014-07-03
Christopher Marlowe findsinspiration and intrigue in the threat of a Spanish invasion.Spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham,suspecting a cuckoo in the nest on the Isle of Wight, dispatches KitMarlowe—playwright, poet and spy—to find missing agent Harry Hasler and helpflush out the traitor. The island, perilously close to the continent, is indanger of King Philip of Spain's darling project: the invasion of England withhis mighty fleet. The possibility that the Armada will make landfall on theWight makes Marlowe's mission urgent. Under the guise of Writer in Residence toWight's governor, Sir George Carey, cousin of Queen Elizabeth, Marlowe sails tothe island and steps off the boat into a mystery. A man's body has been foundheadfirst in a drain in Bottom Field. The decedent is not, as Marlowe fears,the missing Hasler, but local landowner/toady Walter Hunnybun. The unfortunateHunnybun doesn't even get a grave to himself; preceding him is another corpse,a freshly murdered lawyer who had a closer connection to Sir George than thegovernor knows. Those two deaths are only the most recent under Carey's watch.While Marlowe's trying to find Hasler and identify the killer, he must alsoprepare a masque at Carey's request, create a suitable part for Carey'sredoubtable sister and ghostwrite a speech for Queen Elizabeth. During hisundercover efforts to learn who's loyal, who's not, and what's been written ina secret code, the watch is out for Spanish sails in an island adventure thatgives Marlowe the inspiration for a play to rival that of one MasterShaxsper. Trow (Silent Court, 2012,etc.) brings back Marlowe for another bawdy and loosely historical caper.Scattered anachronisms and inaccuracies don't detract from this Tudorundertaking nearly as much as the hero, who remains something of a cipher.
