Interred with Their Bones (original 2007; edition 2007)

Please. No more Temples or Templars! Despite this exclamation from main character Kate Stanley, Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell is a rollicking adventure in the style of The DaVinci Code and all the other great-scandals-of-history books that have flooded the marketplace in recent years. No Templars here, though, but another history-mystery, all about the “Sweetest Swan of Avon,” the Bard himself, William Shakespeare.

The story begins with Kate Stanley, a former Shakespearean scholar who has ditched life in academia in favor of directing the man’s plays at the Globe in London, much to the dismay of her mentor, Roz Howard. Kate knows something’s up when Roz visits her in London, gives her a mysterious box, and then is promptly killed, all while the Globe burns on the anniversary of it’s destruction by fire in 1613. As Kate begins to unravel the mystery, she discovers that it centers on a lost play of Shakespeare’s, Cardenio, which was performed only twice before it disappeared for good. Kate’s search for answers takes her to nearly every important depository of Shakespearean scholarship on the planet, all the while accompanied by mysterious Ben Pearl, who appears just in time to save Kate from an even more mysterious and deadly stalker.

Eventually, the age-old question of the true authorship of Shakespeare’s plays comes into the story. That gnarly question, combined with a few flashback chapters to 1598 – 1612 which feature a mysterious dark woman, an angelic blond boy and the Great Man Himself, serve to muddy the waters. Although a generally ripping good tale, the author introduced way too many characters in both present and past time. By the end of the book, I really didn’t care who Shakespeare was, who he slept with, who could have written the plays, or how many children he fathered. I only wanted to know who killed all the Shakespearean scholars that litter the pages of this book.

The author handled the present-day story skillfully and kept the action moving right up to the surprising ending. I confess, I skimmed over much of the “who wrote the plays” business and concentrated on Kate’s quest to find the missing play. And really, that was enough to keep my interest….the rest was superfluous. Overall, a tasty mystery with a decent dose of history. No Templars, but plenty of intrigue. Recommended. ( )

Interesting idea, lousy execution. Kind of a "Dan Brown goes to Harvard", the MacGuffin being Shakespeare's lost play called "Cardenio" (true basis in history). An idiotic plot full of idiots and holes, rather than sound and fury but still signifying not very much. The author indulges in frequent and confusing back-stitches (not flash backs), and has characters who engage in totally irrational behavior.
In its favor, it does contain a number of "fun facts" about Shakespeare, Harvard, historical personages of Shakespeare's time (through the medium of inserted chapters from that era).
Couldn't bring myself to finish it.
(PS I made the Da Vinci Code connection before I looked at the Wiki summary - love being validated by the hive-mind.)
PPS Goodreads mostly agrees with me - I didn't miss anything stopping early. The high-star readers, well, different strokes for different folks.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4332646-interred-with-their-bones?from_searc...) ( )

This book was released hot on the heals of The DaVinci Code. I have read a few Dan Brown novels and have also started in on Steve Berry's works, and usually find their ancient mystery thrillers quite entertaining. Carrell's book was a slightly different story.

Carrell is a literary history scholar, specialising in, you guessed it, Shakespeare. This of course had absolutely no influence on the book and its plot (sarcasm warning). The overburdening of the narrative with various debates about Shakespeare and history are evidence of not being able to discern the difference between a thriller novel and a dissertation. This was the major flaw with the book and really stopped me from enjoying it more.

Having said that, underneath this was an interesting and well played out plot, with some characters that were well put together (if somewhat generic). Overall it was an enjoyable read, but you can't help but think it could have been done better.

In conclusion, it was ok. If you want an interesting take on Shakespeare based upon facts then this could entertain you. ( )

Originally published at http://rubys-books.blogspot.com/2011/10/book-review-shakespeare-secret-by.html


Two years ago I was browsing my favorite bookshop in Italy in search for something fun to read on the plane on my way back home. I was a very happy camper that the bookshop had a special floor just for books in English, so I just HAD to buy at least one book. I saw the cover, which I absolutely loved, and the blurb convinced me that this might be a good book. I was wrong. It's an amazing book.

The book starts with the scene of the original Globe Theater burning on June 29, 1613. That prologue left me with so many questions, I felt I had to read the rest of the book, to at least find some answers. In the present day, we meet Kate Stanley and her former teacher and mentor, Rosalind "Roz" Howard. Fast forward a few hours, and Roz is dead, the Globe Theater is again on fire and Kate is followed by a killer. The only link between these events is Shakespeare.

I won't go into details, for fear of giving something away. I can tell you what I liked about the book, though. First of all, I liked the way Ms Carrell managed to throw little scenes from the past, adding even more mystery to the book. I can't comment on their accuracy, but the small details, the little hints and the cliffhangers, everything was perfect about them, from my point of view.

I loved Ben. Ben is a man hired to protect Kate if she starts searching for the truth behind the gift that Roz gave her on the night she died. I don't think there's anything lacking about him. He's British, he's smart, he reads, he helps Kate get out of dangerous situations, he's very intuitive. Even though he lacks deep knowledge about Shakespeare, Ben manages to keep up with Kate's thinking, with their search and he even points out some things that maybe Kate missed.

I also loved the fact that I didn't get to figure out who the killer is until the very end. I don't know about the others who've read the book, but I totally didn't expect the killer to be who it turned out to be. And I loved that, because I couldn't figure out the killer's motives. I mean, he had more than one chance to kill Kate, and yet he doesn't. Why? What does Kate have, that Roz didn't?

Then come the details about Shakespeare's work and about the mystery surrounding the real William Shakespeare. The details are many and you can see the author did her research very well. I didn't mind them, though for someone not interested in knowing more about the Bard, they can be a little difficult to get past and a little "too much" history. They did get a bit too in depth at some time, but I believe those details helped combine the real, non-fiction mystery behind the Bard, and the mystery from the book.

I loved the book the first time I read it, and I love it even more now, while I'm rereading. It doesn't feel boring or less thrilling on the second read. Even though I know the story and I know who the killer is, I still can't figure out if there was a point where I could be able to say "Here is the hint that the killer is who he is". Of course, now that I'm rereading it, I can manage paying more attention to the historical details about Shakespeare and the attempts many historians and scholars have made to uncover who the Bard really was.

I was extremely happy when I heard there was a sequel and I read on Ms. Carrell's website that she plans on writing more stories about Kate and Shakespeare. I'm only hoping we'll get a new book about them sooner rather than later. ( )

Thriller, serial killer, Shakespeare, mystery.