Review of Edward Marston's "The Silent Woman", the 6th Nicholas Bracewell mystery set in Elizabethan LondonThe 6th of Edward Marston's splendid Elizabethan murder mysteries of his Nicholas Bracewell series reaches fever pitch in its intricate plotting and takes us back to the origins of Nicholas' life as a traveller and disavowed merchant's son from Devon. It is a wonderful murder mystery but also a great novel dealing with one man's soul searching and what people will - and won't - do for love.Plot:A mysterious youth arrives in London only to be murdered moments after arrival by being poisoned by a ruthless stranger, who has followed the messenger from Barnstaple to stop the youth meeting Nicholas Bracewell and telling him he is needed urgently back at home. The young messenger survives only long enough to reach Anne Hendrik's house, where Nicholas lodges, but dies before being able to tell him why he is needed back in Devon. Meanwhile, a performance by the famed acting troupe Westfield's Men at the Queen's Head inn ends in disaster, when the stage is accidently set on fire and half the inn burns down. The enraged landlord evicts the actors without remorse or listening to their pleas. Bereft of their place of business and facing ruin, the actors have no choice but to leave London and play the provinces until the inn is repaired and they can return or at least find a new venue in London.Surprisingly, the dead messenger turns out to be a young women, no older than 17, and it looks as if she may have been a servant. Nicholas vows revenge for the senseless death, but while he and Anne are busy dealing with the aftermath, the girl's murderer is busy making plans of his own. He will follow Lord Westfield's actors wherever their path leads them - and soon attack after attack on Nicholas' life follows.Beset by one disappointment after the other, the players finally reach Bristol, where Nicholas and the theatre company go their separate ways. The actors will be leaving for Bath to give a performance for their patron's brother, while Nicholas must travel alone to Barnstaple to face up to past sins and the murderous villains who have hired the contract killer stalking him all the way to Bristol's seedy streets.Various entertaining subplots ensure the reader is totally drawn into the Elizabethan world, drawn with amazing intricacy and historic detail. It's a wonderful read for fans of historical murder mysteries and despite it's slightly sad ending, one is left with the desire to read more and more of Nicholas and his merry troupe of actors. Three cheers for Edward Marston and Westfield's Men, for this was a truly great performance all round.
Uh, felt like I needed to put a book up here so I'm not making friends with a bunch of people on this thing with zero books read. Anyway, this is part of a series of books where an Elizabethan acting group (meaning really in Elizabethan times, not just a modern group performing old plays) solves mysteries. Besides getting a mystery, you get to see into the world of acting a few centuries ago. In The Silent Woman, the group accidently burn down their theatre so they have to go "on tour" to earn money. Many adventures are had, there's romance and a little violence and lots o' swashbuckling fun. A good book to read on the beach.
