My big news
I am currently writing a new historical crime series, set in Elizabethan England, featuring a protagonist you might have heard of. The first book is ‘A Serpent In The Garden’, to be published in hardback in January 2025, and the man doing the investigating, into what could prove to be a murder most foul, is a young William Shakespeare.
At this point in his life, Will has written one play, but the theatres have been shut because of a riot, and will stay closed due to plague. His situation is bleak and money a constant worry. What he really needs is a rich patron, and the young, fair and licentious, Earl of Southampton means to use Will, but not in the way he might imagine. The Earl needs someone with a writer’s imagination and an actor’s ability to blend into London’s streets. He wants an ordinary man to look into the suspicious death of his cousin, lady Celia Vernon, and find it’s true cause. Meanwhile the Earl’s enemy, the Queen’s spymaster, Robert Cecil, orders Will to spy for him to bring down the Earl. Caught between two of the most powerful men in the kingdom, young Will Shakespeare begins to realise that he might not live long enough to complete his second play.
This one has been great fun to research and write. I have always been fascinated by Shakespeare’s ‘lost years’; a time during which no one knows where he was or what he did with his life. From living in Stratford aged 21, to being recognised as the writer of Henry the 6th aged 28, Will’s life is a mystery, and for a fiction writer like myself, an irresistible blank canvas. How did he go from being a penniless lad with few prospects, to someone prosperous enough to invest in a new theatre company as a partner, in just seven years? I have thoroughly enjoyed filling in the blanks and am delighted to say that my editor, Kit Neville at Canelo, loved the book and has been a joy to work with on this one. I really hope you enjoy it too.