Overview
Jonas Applegarth is a brilliant but belligerent playwright. When his play, The Misfortunes of Marriage, is performed by Lord Westfield's Men, it causes an uproar. All of Applegarth's enemies attack the company. Nicholas Bracewell defends the playwright loyally, but alas, Applegarth is soon found hanged by the neck. It is only the first of many mysteries that Nicholas has to solve. Lord Westfield's Men are furious when they are satirized by a rival children's theater company at the Blackfriars playhouse. A second attack by the killer-laughing hangman-throws the actors in further disarray. Nicholas is under enormous pressure, not least because he is trying to rekindle his romance with Anne Hendrik by helping her to fend off an aggressive suitor. His beloved company is under threat as never before, and he has to call on all of his resources to rescue them. "Marston's wit and vivid evocation of Elizabethan London's sights and smells provide a delightfully ribald backdrop for this clever series." -Publishers Weekly "A delightfully dazzling period piece suffused with humor, wit and atmospheric drama." -Booklist Edward Marston, under his real name, Keith Miles, was raised in Wales and went on to study modern history at Oxford. He has been a university lecturer, radio, television, and theatre dramatist, and in addition to writing has worked as an actor and director. His Elizabethan novel, The Roaring Boy, was a 1996 Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee for best novel. He lives in Kent.
Synopsis
The coarse and treacherous world of Elizabethan theater is brought vividly to life in this work. Amidst the triumph of a performance, tragedy strikes: the elderly choirmaster of a children's acting troupe is found hanged above his own stage.
Booklist
A delightfully dazzling period piece suffused with humor, wit and atmospheric drama.
Editorials
Booklist
A delightfully dazzling period piece suffused with humor, wit and atmospheric drama.Publishers Weekly -
The coarse and treacherous world of Elizabethan theater is brought vividly to life as Lord Westfield's men return for an eighth outing (after The Roaring Boy, 1995), in which jealousy, murder and accusations of blasphemy descend upon the troupe. The players are about to perform the latest work of Jonas Applegarth, a controversial, foul-tongued playwright whose ego is nearly as fat as he is. But amidst the triumph of the performance, tragedy strikes: the elderly choirmaster of a children's acting troupe (and rival of Westfield's men) is found hanged above his own stage. When stage manager Nicholas Bracewell discovers the body, he hears the distinctive sniggering of the murderer, nicknamed the Laughing Hangman, echoing in the theater. With little to go on, Bracewell investigates while providing bodyguards for the universally unpopular Applegarth and sorting out his own relations with his former love, Anne Hendrik. A second murder at the Queen's Head, home of Bracewell's troupe, leads to a riveting finale. Fans of Bracewell and company will relish this return to the company of Lawrence Firethorn, lead actor and ladies' man, and unlucky playwright Edmund Hoode, who may at last have found love. Marston's wit and vivid evocation of Elizabethan London's sights and smells provide a delightfully ribald backdrop for this clever series. (Aug.)Library Journal
Nicholas Bracewell's Elizabethan drama troupe earns accusations of heresy when a sacrilegious playwright joins. As stage manager, Bracewell defends themand also investigates the murders that plague the group. Authentic period detail from the author of The Dragons of Archenfield (LJ 8/95).Kirkus Reviews
Once again, Lord Westfield's Men, an Elizabethan theatrical troupe, and Nicholas Bracewell, its manager, are embroiled in crisis and murder (The Roaring Boy, 1995, etc.). Westfield's must compete with the nearby Blackfriars Theatre, whose company is made up of young boys from the Royal Choir, legally pressed into service by the Master of the Chapel—presently the saintly Cyril Fulbeck—and managed by suave Raphael Parsons. The most talented boy in Parsons's company is Philip Robinson, son of butcher Ambrose. The father desperately wants his son back and has enlisted neighbor Anne Hendrick to help. Although estranged for a year from onetime lover Nicholas Bracewell, Anne finds him thrilled to see her again and willing to address Robinson's problem. But on his ensuing visit to Blackfriars, he's horrified to discover the body of Cyril Fulbeck hanging from the stage rafters, amid the sound of maniacal laughter. Through it all, Westfield's Men is staging The Misfortunes of Marriage by Jonas Applegarth, a gifted writer so malevolently unpleasant that other companies have cast him out. Nicholas finds his body, too—killed in the same way. Leading man Lawrence Firethorn; his lusty wife Margy; shy playwright Edmund Hoode, whose dream of romance will become a frightening reality, and other troupe members go their constantly squabbling way at the Queen's Head Inn, their longtime venue. Meantime, identity and motivation of the murderer, when finally unmasked by Nicholas, are fairly predictable, but less than convincing.Vibrant and readable, but overstuffed with subplots and tenuous relationships: middling Marston, then—fun, especially for his fans, but less than his best.