The third book in Edward Marston's wonderful Nicholas Bracewell series is something of a puzzle. While the other books are essentially conventional murder mysteries, this one is more of a Elizabethan comedy of errors and mishaps befalling the celebrated troupe of actors, Lord Westfield's Men, for which Nicholas Bracewell acts as book holder and stage manager.
A series of murders occurs, but this time Nicholas is far too busy extricating his actors from one calamity after another to bother with solving crime. The final denouement is more incidental than planned, it seems, as Nicholas literally stumbles upon the murderer in the dark - and the hired assassin who finishes off the murderer!
Set against the political and religious unrests of the late 1500's during Queen Elizabeth I.'s reign, the murders are connected to Lord Walsingham's desire to rid the British Isles of Catholicism once and for all. A protestant monarch, so Walsingham argues, cannot allow religious freedom, if that very freedom of her subjects means they may well opt to have a different head of state.
Prompted by an outbreak of the plague, London's authorities have no choice but to close down theatres in the city - in Europe of the late 16th century the origin of the plague was still unknown and so large gatherings of people were regarded as a source for the contagious disease to take hold.
Robbed of their source of income, Lord Westfield's Men have no option but to leave London for the stages of the provinces. They set off confident, believing they'll wow the crowds of yokels along their way to York, where they are to stay and perform for the owner of an inn, Sir Clarence Marmion. The name of his inn is "The Trip to Jerusalem" and in many ways the troupe of actors are setting off on their very own pilgrimage, although they do not know that yet. Their patron, Lord Westfield, has secured them lodgings and a welcome at many different towns and cities, and the actors look forward to a lucrative few weeks of work. Their loyalties to the stage and to each other are tested to the limits along the way.
When they get to their first destination, they discover to their horror that their rivals, the hated Lord Banbury's Men theatrical group, have not only been there first - Banbury's Men have stolen the script written by Westfield's talented playwright Edmund Hoode and performed a Westfield play to great acclaim. Naturally, the yokels have had their fill of theatre for a while and they refuse to allow Westfield's Men to set up their stage and play.
This is just the first in a long list of towns - Westfield's Men find their efforts thwarted by their rivals wherever they go. It seems, a traitor among their very own troupe has given away the scripts Westfield's Men have guarded for so long. Copyright did not exist in the late 1500's, so a writer could not guard their work. Worse is to come, for one of the Westfield apprentices is kidnapped and then the basket with all their stage costumes goes missing, too. Is this the end of Lord Westfield's Men? How are they ever to recover such a substantial loss?
The novel is a wonderful multi-stranded tale of actors in peril, of murderers going free and of religious fanatics torturing the hell out of each other only to all fall into deadly traps set by the cunning spider Lord Walsingham.
At the end, faltering marriages are repaired and couples fornicate to their hearts' content, while Nicholas finds his finer feelings of friendship and trust betrayed at every turn and witnesses a ruthless killer go free. Much like your average Elizabethan tragedy then...
The novel essentially deals with different types of passion, focussing mostly on the acting bug that won't let go of its "victim", no matter what the circumstances. As always, the banter and catty dialogue between the acting fraternity is highly entertaining. A novel as bawdy, full-blooded and raucous as Shakespeare's Men must have been in their day, when they performed at London's Rose and Curtain theatres!