Interred with Their Bones

“A feverishly paced action adventure” (The New York Times) about a long-lost Shakespeare work and a killer who reenacts the Bard's most bloody murders

Jennifer Lee Carrell's highly acclaimed debut novel is a brilliant, breathlessly paced literary adventure. The action begins on the eve of the Globe's production of Hamlet when Shakespeare scholar and theater director Kate Stanley's eccentric mentor Rosalind Howard gives her a mysterious box, claiming to have made a groundbreaking discovery. Before she can reveal it to Kate, the Globe is burned to the ground and Roz is found dead…murdered precisely in the manner of Hamlet's father.

Inside the box Kate finds the first piece in a Shakespearean puzzle, setting her on a deadly, highstakes treasure hunt. From London to Harvard to the American West, Kate races to evade a killer and solve a tantalizing string of clues hidden in the words of Shakespeare, which may unlock one of history's greatest secrets.

Publishers Weekly

It's not McNenny's fault that Carrell's thriller, hinging on the burning of the Globe Theater in 1613, turns out to be much ado about nothing. McNenny reads at a heart-thumping pace, which is perfect for Kate Stanley, a theater director and former scholar, who is both chasing the past and being pursued by killers in the present. McNenny's performance gives Kate the right combination of brainy sleuthing and brainless commitment to a dangerous investigation. She does not fare as well with the other characters, especially the men. In particular, a London inspector in charge of the murder case of Kate's Harvard mentor sounds Indian or Pakistani, even though he is from the Caribbean. Listeners will ignore the peccadilloes as they are caught up in Kate's breathless trips from London to Cambridge and even the West Coast. For those interested in this popular genre of Shakespeare revised and revisited, the catchy plot and McNenny's exuberant performance are both gripping and vastly entertaining. Simultaneous release with the Dutton hardcover (Reviews, July 16). (Sept.)

Jennifer Lee Carrell is the author of The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox and holds her Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Harvard University as well as other degrees in English Literature from Oxford and Stanford universities. She has also taught at Harvard and directed Shakespeare plays for Harvard's Hyperion Theatre Company. This is her first novel.