Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0765308363, Paperback)

Fledgling playwright Will Shakespeare and Symington Smythe, ostler and would-be thespian, and are now firmly ensconced in their theater company . . . But due to the plague, all of London's theaters have been closed, its players now broke, forcing our intrepid duo to seek employment in other lines of work--Smythe smithing and Will poeting.
Then a murder rocks all of London.

Shakespeare and Smythe decide to solve the crime, but they must rely on their wits to survive both the conspiriacies and the cutthroat business of Elizabethan theater

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0765302411, Hardcover)

ledgling playwright Will Shakespeare and Symington Smythe, ostler and would-be thespian, are firmly ensconced in their theater company. But due to the plague, all of Londons theaters have been closed. The players are broke, and our intrepid duo must sHek employment in other lines of workSmythe smithing and Will poeting.Then a murder rocks all of London.A handsome young craftsman kills a wealthy merchant trader in what was apparently an argument over the reputation of the traders daughter, a beautiful, dark lady to whom the craftsman was engaged. The situation has all the elements of classic Greek tragedy and in no time at all our out-of-work thespians are making Much Ado About Murder.