No’am Newman wrote this for Roots & Branches.
Hands up anyone who saw the film Shakespeare in Love! That film should serve as good background for this book, which is set in a similar milieu. An elegant concept, as Will Shakespeare might have said, to write a book in which the aforesaid Will and his friend and companion Symington “Tuck” Smythe are portrayed as two young men not long up from the country and trying to make a living in London at the end of the sixteenth century. When not employed by The Queen’s Men (their acting troupe) as playwright and ostler, respectively, Shakespeare and Smythe also solve murders, and there are plenty in this book to be solved.
I don’t really want to write too much about the story for fear of giving the plot away (a problem when reviewing crime and mystery novels), but I can say that the first half of the story takes place in London, whereas the second half is set at the country estate of Godfrey Middleton, nouveau riche, who is trying to win (or buy) a place in the aristocracy. The first half consists mainly of Smythe and Shakespeare conversing about the former’s position in life, and about unrequited love — commoner Smythe is more than a little in love with Lady Elizabeth Darcy, who just happens to be the close friend of Catherine Middleton, whose marriage is to be celebrated in the second half of the book with a special performance by the Queen’s Men.
The division into two halves is not merely mechanical; the style of writing also changes when the action moves from the city into the country, and as it happens, this change occurs almost exactly halfway through the book. The first half of the book is primarily exposition; some of it is done well, and some is done with a heavy hand. I found myself wondering when something was going to happen when finally the story got underway. This part of the book needed firmer editing than it received, as there are passages which are either irrelevant or repeated. Ned Alleyn — the actor who left the Queen’s Men for another troupe — is mentioned several times, and whilst this adds authentic background, the repetitions are needless and detract from the story. His name also suddenly crops up towards the end of the book, completely out of context, and better editing would have elided this reference. Even better editing would have caught the fact that at one point Hawke misspells ‘nobleman’ as ‘nobelman’ (something which shouldn’t happen in this age of computers).
Whilst direct speech in the book is in the style of the sixteenth century (complete with authentic cursing), Smythe’s inner thoughts are written in modern English, which makes them easy to follow. Technically, the book is written from the viewpoint of the third person limited narrator — we are given access to Smythe’s thoughts, whereas we can only hear the other characters through their speech. There are two lapses from this, where suddenly we are reading Shakespeare’s mind, but as Smythe is not present in these scenes, there is little confusion about whose thoughts we are channeling. The second half of the book contains much more direct speech and less inner dialogue: this naturally makes the story run faster, and at times it seems that the words can’t keep up with the pace at which the action is happening.
Another minor bone of contention is that Hawke several times makes reference to events which took place in an earlier Shakespeare and Smythe book, A Mystery of Errors. Note the subtle Shakespearean reference in the title, whose tone carries through to this book, the second in the series.
Whilst I didn’t care for the unnecessary repetitions in the exposition and the galloping finish, these flaws might not matter to other readers. I did like the portrayal of Shakespeare as crime-solver very much. He shows himself to be a fine judge of character and someone who understands motive. His analysis of the first murder and the possible perpetrator is quite masterful, and could serve as an example to other crime writers. When asked about this, Shakespeare says that he needs to understand people and their motives in order to write plays successfully. Quite so.
The future looks rosy for a third book, and I look forward to reading it, because, despite its flaws, I enjoyed The Slaying of the Shrew.
(Forge Books, 2001)
