Crimson Rose

All the world’s a stage when a character in Marlowe’s play kills a spectator in this absorbing historical tale of murder, spies, and greed. March, 1587. Christopher Marlowe’s play Tamburlaine, with the incomparable Ned Alleyn in the title role, has opened at the Rose Theatre, and a new era on the London stage is born. Yet the play is almost shut down on its opening night when a member of the audience, Eleanor Merchant, is struck dead by a musket ball fired from the stage. The man with his finger on the trigger? A bit-part player named Will Shakespeare. Convinced of Shakespeare’s innocence, Marlowe determines to find out what really happened. When a second body is found floating in the River Thames, it becomes clear that Eleanor Merchant’s death was no accident, and that something deeper and darker is afoot. “Fans of the series and of Edward Marston’s amusing Elizabethan theater mysteries, featuring Nicholas Bracewell, will enjoy Kit Marlowe’s part in the drama at the Crimson Rose.” —Booklist