Interred with Their Bones

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 show more 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. show less

Dear Lord! This was BAD!!! Picked up from the rather eclectic collection of books at work, to read at lunch time. interesting surmise - that there's a Shakespeare play out there that was supressed in the First folio and has lain hidden ever since. Muddying the waters of the search, there's a murderer who kills in the style of Shakespeare's victims and some very muddled thinking. Really really awful. Not suspenseful, not a thriller, not even a coherent detective plot. Awful, just awful. I should have known there was something wrong when the blurb on the back said it was a plot worthy of the Da Vinci code...

In a word, fantastic.

Kate Stanley is on the brink of her directorial debut in London's famous Globe theater, when her mentor, an eccentric Shakespearian scholar appears, her a mysterious gift., and is promptly murdered. Kate can't resist the lure of the challenge, and sets off on a continent hopping race to find Roz's killer, with an arsonist/murderer hot on her heels.

Riveting, scholarly, and fast paced enough to keep you turning pages long past when the lights should be out. It reads like a combination of the Da Vinci Code and a really good Barbara Michaels (a.k.a. Elizabeth Peters) romance/mystery. If there are a couple of weak spots in the action, it's forgivable. I finished with a strong desire to refresh my knowledge of show more Shakespeare, and also to check into some of the historical detail more closely. show less

This was a hugely fun chase through Shakespeare's work and Shakespeare's lore, including the question of who wrote the works we give Shakespeare's name to.This book was exactly what it set out to be. Cryptic clues! Chases! Near Escapes! I know enough about Shakespeare that most of the references in the book rang a bell, but not enough that I could say if any of the conclusions they drew from the clues actually made sense. They all sounded good in the book, though.With any book of this sort, you have to suspend disbelief. Mostly, this isn't a problem for me. I did have one issue with this book, that still bothers me after finishing it. Once people continue to be murdered, why does Kate believe her new allies over the police? She realizes show more at various points that they will believe it isn't her if she talks to them then, and she realizes everyone she is talking to about her quest is being killed, but she still doesn't bring in the police! It seems out of character. The again, it is only a book. show less

Jennifer Lee Carrell has a PhD in English and American literature from Harvard and has taught the History and Literature programme at the prestigious university - as well as directing Shakespeare for Harvard's Hyperion Theatre Company.

The plot - A woman is left to die as the rebuilt Globe theatre burns. Another woman is drowned in the manner of Ophelia, skirts swirling in the water. A professor has his throat slashed open on the steps of Washington's Capitol building. A deadly serial killer is on the loose, modelling his murders on Shakespeare's plays. But why is he killing? And how can he be stopped?

This was a desperate 3 for 2 purchase at Waterstone’s as I had run out of reading matter. Having said that, it turned out to be a good show more buy.

An enjoyable mixture of fact and fiction, the tale revolves around the possibility of the existence of a lost play by Shakespeare inspired by Cervantes' novel, Don Quixote, and the heroine, Kate Stanley’s quest to follow a trail of clues to locate the item before the dastardly serial killer. The book is written in the first person and is structured in five acts, much like a Shakespeare play would be, divided by an interlude which takes place in the 1600's, clever device. The character development is a bit thin on the ground probably as attention has been lavished mainly on the historical background and the development of the storyline.

JL’s narrative mixes fact and fiction in such a tight Gordian Knot that it’s difficult to extract one or the other, but I guess that’s what she set out to achieve. Do you have to be a Shakespeare buff to enjoy this book? Nah, just let the historical bits wash over you, it can sometimes get a bit heavy trying to sort out the Earl of This and the Countess of That. I was a bit perturbed that someone with a literary background should misquote “all that glisters is not gold” as “all that glitters...” (The Merchant of Venice, 1596 edition. Also, "All is not golde that glistereth." Thomas Becon The relikes of Rome, 1553), it certainly jarred with me.

The book ends with a section entitled "Author's Notes" in which JL gives an outline of what is real in the book i.e. the majority of historical characters, the lost play Cardenio and many of the places featured, but then she also admits the parts which were figments of her imagination i.e. a couple of characters, parts of the hidden book we don't know about, etc. So I guess, if you’re interested enough, you could explore the historical facts a little further. Overall, I’d recommend this book; it’s a fast-paced thriller and a jolly interesting read. show less

I resented having to put this book down to eat, do necessary chores and to sleep. It starts with a fire at the Globe Theatre on the same day and date that it originally burned after which Kate Stanley's estranged mentor is found dead in Kate's office after leaving her a package and telling Kate that she'd found something. Once that horse's out of the barn it becomes an international search for clues as to what her mentor had found proof of, who killed her mentor, who was Shakespeare, and try not to get killed while she's going about it. I just hope there was some connivance between Ben Pearl and Inspector Sinclair otherwise the way they slipped though international security is worrisome. A fast and enjoyable read.

The Shakespeare Secret by Jennifer Lee Carrell grabbed me from the get go. It had all the elements I enjoy - suspense, thrills, mystery and how can you go wrong when this is centered around the continued controversy in some circles over the 'true' writer of Shakespeare's plays?

What keeps you turning the pages though is not just that there appears to be a serial killer who is systematically killing everyone who has letters, documents or specific books on Shakespeare that could shed light on the true author, but also the many twists that will keep you changing your mind as to the identity of friends and fiends, victims and villains. Oh...what fun.