| Assassins -- Fiction. |
| Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction. |
| Venice (Italy) -- History -- 1508-1797 -- Fiction. |
| Suspense fiction. |
| Historical fiction. |
| Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Fiction |
| Hatchet men (Assassins) |
| Hit men |
| Hitmen |
| Triggermen |
Available:
Library | Shelf Number | Shelf Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Dartmouth - Southworth | FIC BRA | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Foxboro - Boyden Library | FIC BRANDRETH, B. | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mansfield Public Library | FIC BRANDRETH | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Mattapoisett Free Public Library | BRA | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... New Bedford Wilks Branch | FIC BRANDRETH | FICTION | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Shakespeare in Love meets C. J. Sansom in a historical thriller with a swashbuckling twist--and a hero as you've never seen him before.
August, 1585. England needs its greatest hero to step forward . . .
When he is caught by his wife in one ill-advised seduction too many, young William Shakespeare flees Stratford to seek his fortune. Cast adrift in London, Will falls in with a band of players, but greater men have their eye on this talented young wordsmith. England's very survival hangs in the balance and Will finds himself dispatched to Venice on a crucial assignment.
Dazzled by the city's masques and its beauties, he little realizes the peril in which he finds himself. Catholic assassins would stop at nothing to end his mission on the point of their sharpened knives--and lurking in the shadows is a killer as clever as he is cruel.
Suspenseful, seductive, and as sharp as an assassin's blade, The Spy of Venice introduces a major new literary talent to the genre--thrilling if you've never read a word of Shakespeare and sublime if you have.
Reviews (3)
School Library Journal Review
The time: 1585. The setting: Stratford, London, and Venice. This fast-paced tale of intrigue and murder theorizes how the Bard may have spent part of his "Lost Years" (1585-92). Using many historically accurate details of the period's religious and political turmoil in England and the decadent Venetian Republic, Brandreth (Shakespearean expert and rhetoric coach for the Royal Shakespeare Company) has crafted a story filled with humor, sexual innuendo, and sparkling banter among well-developed characters. Frequent allusions to the playwright's plots, dramatis personae, and dialogue ensure good reading for Shakespeare aficionados and neophytes alike. Similar in appeal to Bernard Cornwell's Fools and Mortals, Brandreth's mystery, told largely in flashback and inspired by documented events and personages, offers a plausible scenario for Shakespeare's fascination with Italy, the setting of 13 of his 39 plays. The chapter titles are quotes from his oeuvre-everything from bits of poetry to stage directions, with the text divided into dramatic acts and scenes. Smatterings of Italian vocabulary (e.g., ancone, traghetti) are either defined or explained in the text. The "Historical Note" elucidates the facts the author used, allowing Brandreth to declare, "This is not a work of history, but it could have been this way...." VERDICT A stunning, provocative debut novel sure to capture the imagination of older teens.-Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, formerly at LaSalle Academy, Providence © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
What if William Shakespeare was an intelligence agent before he became a playwright? That's the clever premise of Brandreth's impressive first novel. In 1585, the 20-year-old William, who's been working half-heartedly in the family glove trade, leaves Stratford-upon-Avon at the urging of his father after the discovery of his affair with a young woman, Alice Hunt, whose father, a steward to the local MP, could do him harm. William heads to London, where he becomes an actor and meets Sir Henry Carr, the English ambassador to Venice. Sir Henry, who's embarking on a delicate diplomatic mission, is looking for actors to be part of the delegation. With his country under threat from Spain, France, and the Netherlands, he hopes that the offer of a trade deal will persuade the Venetians to ally with England. William signs on and travels to Venice, where he must contend with various perils, including Catholic assassins. Brandreth, the rhetoric coach to the Royal Shakespeare Company, plausibly and imaginatively fills a gap in the historical record of the Bard's life. Agent: Ivan Mulcahy, MMB Creative (U.K.). (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ah, Shakespeare! The lunatic, the lover, the poet. The spy. Royal Shakespeare Company rhetoric coach Brandreth brings considerable expertise to his subject in a story rich in humor and intrigue. The dialogue and characters borrow heavily and delightfully from the Bard himself, including an exit, pursued by a bear. Oldcastle is clearly Sir John Falstaff incarnate, complete with the avoirdupois, wanton desires, and witticisms readers would expect. Who else, in the clutches of a villainous Italian count, could pull off the pretense of being the Ambassador of England? Despite his tremendous fame, very few facts about Shakespeare have been established, and Brandreth has a grand old time filling in some of the blanks. A swashbuckling young man emerges after a hasty flight from an ill-advised assignation in Stratford. In London, he falls in with a band of players, and his poetry commissions eventually involve him in an intrigue that takes him to Venice on a crucial government assignment. Shakespeare finds himself in considerable peril as an Englishman in a Catholic country, incurring papal wrath and fending off ruthless assassins at every turn. It is a Venice that predates Donna Leon's Guido Brunetti by about 400 years, but Brandreth creates a sixteenth-century atmosphere that is equally tangible. As rich in period detail as Rory Clements' John Shakespeare series (about William's older brother) and C. J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake novels, also set in the sixteenth century, but a lot more fun. Bravo!--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2018 Booklist