book data
464 ratings, 3.47 average rating, 205 reviews
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published
September 20th 2007
by Dutton Adult
binding
Hardcover, 416 pages
isbn
0525949704
(isbn13: 9780525949701)
description
A long-lost work of Shakespeare, newly found.
A killer who stages the Bard’s extravagant murders as flesh-and-blood realities.
A desperate race to...more
A killer who stages the Bard’s extravagant murders as flesh-and-blood realities.
A desperate race to...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 774)
Good lord in heaven, this book is a train wreck. It's almost impressive that a plot this unoriginal could also be so maddeningly complicated. I'm somewhat familiar with Shakespeare's plays and the times in which he wrote them, but the jumbled cast of historical characters is impossible to keep straight. I'm surprised the affectedly plucky leading lady could keep track of her own research.
And, of course, the reader is treated to plenty of clichéd (or "classic," if you're bein...more
And, of course, the reader is treated to plenty of clichéd (or "classic," if you're bein...more
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Read in January, 2008
An average "secrets hidden for centuries" type book. The main character, Kate, just happens to be a Shakespeare scholar (although a slightly dense one at times) who is the perfect candidate to hunt for a lost Shakespearean epic. She globe-trots rapidly (seriously, why does the author never discuss how jetlagged she would have been by the end of this) in a hunt for secrets left around the world, which she must unite to find the lost manuscript of Cardenio. A really good audio book, i...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
Shakespeare lovers/London history junkies
As much as I hate to compare other books to the Da Vinci Code this book was as fun & compelling to read as Dan Brown's popular title. It probably helps if you've visited London, the Globe Theatre or even seen a live production of any of Shakespeare's plays. Protagonist Kate Stanley is a scholar who leads us all over the world hunting clues for lost folios, undiscovered letters and hidden identities of who really wrote the plays attributed to the Bard. Every place she visits is soon the site ...more
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Read in November, 2008
recommends it for:
nobody
This book is trying to be a Shakespearean take on Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose."
Here, Kate somebody, a 20's-something Shakespeare scholar and theater director, follows mysterious clues as the people around her succumb to Hamlet-esque deaths.
But boy oh boy, what a disappointment. This one started out much higher on the star rating and then plummeted. I finished it, but only out of grumpiness. This novel has a cool premise. What if a long-lost manuscript of one of Shakesp...more
Here, Kate somebody, a 20's-something Shakespeare scholar and theater director, follows mysterious clues as the people around her succumb to Hamlet-esque deaths.
But boy oh boy, what a disappointment. This one started out much higher on the star rating and then plummeted. I finished it, but only out of grumpiness. This novel has a cool premise. What if a long-lost manuscript of one of Shakesp...more
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Read in October, 2008
I just finished this book tonight and it was a total delight. It feels like the author was trying to figure out how an academic could have this James Bond/Bourne Identity style adventure. I loved it! She orchestrated all these great puzzles and clues, there was smart and funny dialogue, and tons of Shakespeare quotes and history. I consider myself a Shakespeare fan and I'm pretty familiar with a lot of it, but several of the characters in the books were real experts and made feel like an ignoram...more
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Read in October, 2008
A literate literary thriller, with edge of the seat chases and world-wide travel. Kate Stanley is a well-known theatre director, Shakespeare mostly, a PhD from Harvard. A well-known Shakespearian scholar. Her mentor, Roz, seeks her out after many years separation and gives her a gift with the mysterious instruction, "Follow where it leads." Kate is directing Hamlet at the Globe in London. Unfortunately Roz dies during the fire at the Globe. Immediately, Kate is followed and threate...more
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Read in September, 2008
If you hate Dan Brown, please read past the first sentence!
This is a Dan Brown-like adventure into the world of Shakespeare---Dan Brown-like in that there are unknown bad guys chasing the main character, and there are cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. However, it's a much better read, because this author is actually an English professor and knows more about the art and craft she's practicing.
The plot has to do with a missing Shakespeare play, and delves a bit into who the dark lad...more
This is a Dan Brown-like adventure into the world of Shakespeare---Dan Brown-like in that there are unknown bad guys chasing the main character, and there are cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. However, it's a much better read, because this author is actually an English professor and knows more about the art and craft she's practicing.
The plot has to do with a missing Shakespeare play, and delves a bit into who the dark lad...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
Anyone up for a fun read.
Being curious I grabbed this book at the library and held no expectations for what I was going to read. I find that is the best going into any book.
I found the story and plot very complex but entertaining. I found the book to be a great middle of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and Davinci Code by Dan Brown. There were quite a lot of twists that kept me guessing and plenty of action. (hence Davinci Code) More than that though, the Author wound herself through every theroy that has exi...more
I found the story and plot very complex but entertaining. I found the book to be a great middle of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and Davinci Code by Dan Brown. There were quite a lot of twists that kept me guessing and plenty of action. (hence Davinci Code) More than that though, the Author wound herself through every theroy that has exi...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Rachel by:
Library Reader's Choice
I liked this book better than many of the other books that I've read from the Library Reader's Choice list this summer. I still don't like vulgar language, although, again, I've read worse.
This book is essentially the Da Vinci Code for Shakespeare fans, including any of those who subscribe to alternative identity theories for him/her/them. A bit of a clue here leads on a frantic chase there, ad naseum, with homicidal lunatics with greed and "preserve the name" motives in hot purs...more
This book is essentially the Da Vinci Code for Shakespeare fans, including any of those who subscribe to alternative identity theories for him/her/them. A bit of a clue here leads on a frantic chase there, ad naseum, with homicidal lunatics with greed and "preserve the name" motives in hot purs...more
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Read in July, 2008
I liked the plot of this novel. The story begins with a mystery and a murder that sets Kate, the protagonist, on a quest to discover Shakespeare's lost play Cardenio. The quest turns darker when it becomes apparent that finding Cardenio is tied up with finding the truth about who really wrote Shakespeare's plays. Carrell is a professor of literature and has directed many of Shakespeare's plays, and she's very well informed about the controversy over Shakespeare's identity. Over t...more
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Read in July, 2008
I found this book to be fast moving, action packed, and engrossing. The life of Kate Stanley, a former Shakespearean academician and current Shakespearean play director, is shaken when her former mentor, Roz, visits her and is then found dead after a fire in the theater where Kate is working. Kate was given a gift by her mentor hours before her death, and it is the first clue to solving a Shakespearean puzzle. Kate chases clues from England to Harvard University to the American southwest, and...more
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Read in July, 2008
I looked at this book several times in stores but always passed it up: it seemed to be another Da Vinci Code look-alike, except this time with Shakespeare. Potentially amusing, but not worth the money. Finally, instead of buying it, I ended up checking it out from my library and giving it a chance. I was very pleased with the result.
The plot of the book is bound up with the ever-shady world of Shakespeare scholarship (shady in that the truth about Shakespeare is difficult to discern and ...more
The plot of the book is bound up with the ever-shady world of Shakespeare scholarship (shady in that the truth about Shakespeare is difficult to discern and ...more
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Read in November, 2007
Have i ever mentioned that i’m a huge fan of Shakespeare? Perhaps i have. One of my fondest dreams has always been to take up residence somewhere as a librarian at a Shakespeare library. Shakespeare combines my love of theatre with my love of writing and then there’s all the intrigue of “who really wrote Shakespeare?” (though i’m a fairly strict Stratfordian, it’s still a little fun to speculate) Interred with their Bones is a rather Shakespearean (but perhaps faster-moving) Historia...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
People about to take a long trip
******Starring, tada! The Folger*****
by Gina Guglielmo
It was extra credit. Remember those words that high school kids hoped would drop like manna on their heads after a lackluster semester of low quiz grades and no homework? I hasten to say those words were not part of Mrs. Guglielmo’s vocabulary very often: if the student attended a play and wrote a long report about its merits, or if he or she read a real book connected with some facet of British literature---well maybe so...more
by Gina Guglielmo
It was extra credit. Remember those words that high school kids hoped would drop like manna on their heads after a lackluster semester of low quiz grades and no homework? I hasten to say those words were not part of Mrs. Guglielmo’s vocabulary very often: if the student attended a play and wrote a long report about its merits, or if he or she read a real book connected with some facet of British literature---well maybe so...more
Read in April, 2008
Mieliśmy kod Leonarda, teraz mamy szyfr Szekspira (a tak naprawdę to Bacona)...
To oczywiste skojarzenie, tym bardziej że na okładce jeden z recenzentów twierdzi, że książka jest tak dobra, że odłożył "Kod Leonarda Da Vinci". Ponieważ moja opinia na temat książki Browna jest bardzo zła, powyższe zdanie nie było specjalnie polecającym i trudnym do osiągnięcia.
Kiedy już przywykniemy do irytującej poetyzacji języka ("śpiewające ostrze noża" i inne p...more
To oczywiste skojarzenie, tym bardziej że na okładce jeden z recenzentów twierdzi, że książka jest tak dobra, że odłożył "Kod Leonarda Da Vinci". Ponieważ moja opinia na temat książki Browna jest bardzo zła, powyższe zdanie nie było specjalnie polecającym i trudnym do osiągnięcia.
Kiedy już przywykniemy do irytującej poetyzacji języka ("śpiewające ostrze noża" i inne p...more
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Read in January, 2008
The DaVinci Code gone Shakespearean, centering on the age old question of who actually wrote the plays. A good premise and the central character is mildly entertaining as is Sir Henry. This work has many twists and turns--I suppose its the Shakespearean aspect of it all--but the work contains certain portions of the Shakespeare myth--Psalm 46 for instance--that is suddenly a shock to someone who is suppose to be an expert on the Bard. I think one of the problems is that the work was too earne...more
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Read in January, 2008
Holy moly, I need to own this book. :D
I spotted this at the bookstore two weekends ago, but didn't have enough money. When I saw it at the library, I snatched it up instantly.
And from the very first chapter, I was hooked.
Now, I'm not a big Shakespeare fan. I "read" Hamlet and Othello in senior year English, but there's very little I remember of it. I don't usually seek of Shakespeare's stuff, because reading it takes me a while. (Lame excuse, I know. Hush) Thankfully, for t...more
I spotted this at the bookstore two weekends ago, but didn't have enough money. When I saw it at the library, I snatched it up instantly.
And from the very first chapter, I was hooked.
Now, I'm not a big Shakespeare fan. I "read" Hamlet and Othello in senior year English, but there's very little I remember of it. I don't usually seek of Shakespeare's stuff, because reading it takes me a while. (Lame excuse, I know. Hush) Thankfully, for t...more
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Read in October, 2008
recommends it for:
Marianne, Cyndee, Sabio, Carol, and Carly.
First off, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which I have categorized as a "thinking person's mystery." One does not need an extensive knowledge of Shakespeare, his plays and sonnets, or Elizabethan England, but the more background one has, the more delightful one's pleasure is liable to be.
Ms. Carrell writes well and obviously spent a lot of effort crafting her plot, which turns out to be a "straight as a cork-screw." With so many dips, dives, and "things are not alwa...more
Ms. Carrell writes well and obviously spent a lot of effort crafting her plot, which turns out to be a "straight as a cork-screw." With so many dips, dives, and "things are not alwa...more
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Read in August, 2008
I was actually dreading this book. At first glance, it didn't appeal to me at all. Shakespeare? The boring stuff we read in high school? Conspiracy Theories? The beginning was hard for me to settle into. Not having much of a Shakespeare background, it was hard to follow. But, then it took off, and I was enthralled with the story.
Kate, who is in England directing a production of Hamlet, is approached by her eccentric mentor with the key to a hidden treasure. When the smoke clears, Kat...more
Kate, who is in England directing a production of Hamlet, is approached by her eccentric mentor with the key to a hidden treasure. When the smoke clears, Kat...more
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Read in October, 2008
recommends it for:
masochists
I finally put this book down after reading about 2/3 of it. I just couldn't believe the story, and couldn't make myself care.
It got off to a bad start for me when one of the characters "howled in triumph." I can imagine howling in triumph on the field of battle, perhaps. Other than that, I can't really picture it.
After the triumphant howling, the book becomes one of those mysteries where the protagonists jet around from place to place, and everyone who helps them dies. Calling ...more
It got off to a bad start for me when one of the characters "howled in triumph." I can imagine howling in triumph on the field of battle, perhaps. Other than that, I can't really picture it.
After the triumphant howling, the book becomes one of those mysteries where the protagonists jet around from place to place, and everyone who helps them dies. Calling ...more
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