The Spy of Venice

William Shakespeare Thriller #1

by Benet Brandreth

August, 1585. England needs its greatest hero to step forward . . .

When he is caught by his wife in one ill-advised seduction too many, young William Shakespeare flees Stratford to seek his fortune. Cast adrift in London, Will falls in with a band of players, but greater men have their eye on this talented young wordsmith. England’s very survival hangs in the balance and Will finds himself dispatched to Venice on a crucial assignment.

Dazzled by the city’s masques and its beauties, he little realizes the peril in which he finds himself. Catholic assassins would stop at nothing to end his mission on the point of their sharpened knives—and lurking in the shadows is a killer as clever as he is cruel.

Suspenseful, seductive, and as sharp as an assassin’s blade, The Spy of Venice introduces a major new literary talent to the genre—thrilling if you’ve never read a word of Shakespeare and sublime if you have.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Shakespeare, Fiction, Historical, Thriller, Italy

448 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 2016

About the author

Benet Brandreth is an expert on Shakespeare's language and times, the rhetoric coach to the Royal Shakespeare Company and others, and a writer and performer whose last one-man show was a five-star reviewed sell-out at the Edinburgh Fringe and on its London Transfer. On top of all that he is a leading IP barrister. The Spy of Venice is his debut novel.

(Source: Amazon)

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5 stars *

This book will surely be a delight to readers on every level; Shakespeare buffs, lovers of literature, but perhaps most of all those who simply enjoy really exciting and well-plotted historical thrillers. It was published in 2016 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

It is based on the idea put forward by some Shakespeare scholars that at some stage in his career he may have visited Italy, because so many of his plays are set there, and some are based on Italian plays that had not been translated into English, which implies he may have spoken Italian? He had also made a thorough study of the classics at school in Stratford, and there are many allusions to Virgil and Ovid in the text. Potential readers do not assume that this indicates a boring read. There is not a dull moment in this book.

Brandreth has timed Shakespeare's Venetian adventure to coincide with his being accused by Sir Thomas Lucy, the Stratford local landowner, of poaching a deer. Shakespeare, then aged 20 and already a husband and father, needs to disappear. Brandreth presents a more entertaining reason for this necessity. He leaves Stratford with a small group of players whose company he has enjoyed during their short season in the town.

In London, Shakespeare becomes a bosom companion of the two leading players, Oldcastle and Hemminges. When they are given an engagement to play in Venice by the Ambassador to the Serene Republic, Sir Henry Carr, they persuade Shakespeare to accompany them, pointing out that it would be to his advantage to be out of the country for a while. Sir Henry reveals that he is employed as a spy by Queen Elizabeth, and the main object of his mission is to deliver a package of letters directly into the hands of the Venetian Doge.

Shakespeare, highly gifted and intelligent though he is, is a complete innocent when it comes to affairs of state, and it is a horrifying shock to him when their party, nearing their destination, are ambushed and attacked, leaving Shakespeare and Oldcastle as the only survivors. Sir Henry, who is cared for in his dying moments by Shakespeare, entrusts the letters to him. Oldcastle and Shakespeare decide their only way forward is to impersonate the Ambassador and his steward and deliver the letters themselves. They meet up with Prospero, the Count of Genoa, who offers to escort them into Venice. So they are thrown into a web of intrigue and danger that it would have been impossible for them to imagine previously. They are regarded with intense suspicion by everyone they meet and have great difficulty in maintaining their roles.

The twists and turns of the plot demonstrate that nothing and nobody are what they appear to be, not even Isabella, the beautiful courtesan Shakespeare immediately falls in love with. I really didn't want to finish it and am very glad Benet Brandreth has left himself an opportunity to continue Shakespeare's Venetian adventures a while longer.

[Paromjit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a historical thriller that features one Will Shakespeare. Yes, that one! It is constructed to fill in the gaps in the life of the William Shakespeare and is in the form of a play which works superbly. Much as the plays of Shakespeare, this story has everything from action, romance and suspense to make it a gripping and compelling read. After being caught out in sexual shenanigans, Will hotfoots it to London. Whilst he is there mingling with London society, he is given a mission to carry out in Venice. Will finds himself on a twisted and dangerous trail encompassing assassins and a ruthless, clever killer. A wonderful and absorbing read from a talented author. I look forward to reading more from him. Many thanks to twenty7, the publishers for a copy of the book via netgalley.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scrapes a 4! I found this hard to get into and the extremely short chapters but extremely long titles, kept breaking my focus. Nevertheless, I ended up enjoying the story and the atmosphere created in this novel.
The historical context was interesting. Protestant Britain sought allies against Catholic Spain and the Pope. Venice, centred on trade, was autonomous from Rome and could be appealed to by Britain for support. Spies, spies everywhere!
Into this mix steps William Shakespeare in his 'missing years' between having a family and coming from a family of glove makers, to 8 years later appearing in London as a fully fledged playwright. The author supposes that , as so many of Shakespeare's plays are set in Italy, this may we'll be where he disappeared to.

You really get a feel for Venice at the time and it is indeed evocative of the Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet. The book is structured as a play, divided into acts and scenes. I thought the author struck a good balance in use of language, making it contemporary enough to understand it with a good feel for the language of Shakespeare's time.
In this story Shakespeare stumbles into an adventure in hapless fashion but wises up along the way. It takes a while to work out who is working for or against him and his friend Oldcastle. The plot is a tangle of misunderstandings to be resolved just as in some of Shakespeare's comedies.
I wouldn't say I loved this but I did enjoy it, as much as for its historical context as for either the storyline or the characters.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

“There is a rare understanding in you.” (3.5 stars)

This is a novel I should have loved. It has all the ingredients that are in my wheelhouse. A story about Shakespeare, a fictionalized scenario that could be plausible (filling in the gaps of Shakespeare’s life we don’t know about) and a mystery romp in 1500s Europe. And I did like it, just not as much as I was hoping too. And the fault might be mine.
“The Spy of Venice” has a great concept, and it is a clever manner to explain Shakespeare’s “Lost Years” where we don’t know what he was up to. The novel creates a fun fiction and it creates a scenario that gives us answers to inspirations for some of the Bard’s later great works.
Regular readers of Shakespeare will love the plethora of allusions to his work strewn throughout the text. They are everywhere! Some deliciously subtle, others very obvious, most all of them shrewdly deployed. There are many, and I have no doubts that I missed more than a few of them.
Those familiar with Shakespeare’s world and his works will also recognize real people from his life in the text as characters and will also see many fictionalized characters encountered by young Billy S. that the author (Benet Brandreth) has given traits that are meant to show them as inspirations for characters that later populated Shakespeare’s plays. This enhances the idea that Shakespeare's greatness lay in his ability to create wonderfully human characters, "Hold the mirror up to nature" as it were. Observing closely the reality of humanity and then translating it to the stage without losing that truth. Mr. Brandreth’s young Will is observant and astute, and his characterization of a budding Shakespeare is a strength of the novel.
I enjoyed “The Spy of Venice”, the plot is interesting, and the mystery (though surface) is intriguing, but it did take me longer to read it than I anticipated. I assumed I would tear thru this text, but I didn’t. Not sure if it was because life was busy while I was reading it, or the book itself (probably both) that accounts for that.
Still, this novel has a sequel and I will read it.

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

***2018 Summer of Spies***

William Shakespeare as a character was the hook that persuaded me to pick up this historical espionage novel, but really virtually any well-known man from the period could have substituted successfully in the role. I kind of turned off the “Shakespeare detector” in my brain in order to enjoy the novel as much as I did.

Picture Shakespeare as kind of an Elizabethan James Bond, learning his way around Venice and Venetians and trying to fulfill the mission that he inherits from the assassinated nobleman who recruited him to travel to Italy. The plot was decent—twisty enough to be interesting, but with a few thin spots. For example, I think two actors from a ragged company would be hard pressed to impersonate the English ambassador and his aide. But once you’ve allowed yourself to accept those unlikely situations, the novel is simply fun.

Brandreth seeded a lot of phrases throughout the novel that would presage some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays and sonnets. Most of the time, I found them amusing, but occasionally they grated on me a bit. The author is an actor and a specialist in Shakespearean language and history, so his choice of Shakespeare as character makes sense. I also found the language used in the writing to be appropriate—not too obviously 21st century, for example.

I certainly liked this tale well enough to read Brandreth’s sequel, The Assassin of Verona.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this look at what Shakespeare could have been doing in his "missing years." Going into this, you need to know it's all imagination and what might have been.

It was so much fun to me to see how Shakespeare might have decided to write what he later did and who, what and where inspired his writings. He gets himself tangled in some mischief and drama, which is also interesting and gives it a thriller-suspense feel in parts. This book which features Shakespeare as a character includes all the things he himself wrote about: comedy, tragedy, romance...and to top it all off it's loosely structured like a play.

This is a first in a series which I think has much promise. I can't wait to see what happens in the next installment!

**Many thanks to NetGalley and twenty7 for a reader's copy to review**

[Annette · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story starts with William Shakespeare at the age of 20, married with three children and dreaming about play-writing.

As players traverse towns to act their new plays, once in Stratford-Upon-Avon, William’s hometown, Will convinces them to act a play he just wrote that morning. It is well-received and his talent is recognized. He is encouraged to join the company as they are on the way to London.

Once Will is in London and story starts alternating between London and Venice, it is scattered. Normally, I don’t mind short chapters, but due to shortness of the chapters, a reader doesn’t have enough time to grasp a situation of one place before it jumps to another.

As much as I liked the beginning of the story, once the story got scattered, I couldn’t get back into the story; even with the few following chapters concentrating just on Shakespeare.

[AdiTurbo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disjointed, annoying writing. No suspense, only boredom. Historical fiction at its worst.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, how I read most of this book wrong! May I explain? There is a Prologue, 4 Interludes, 5 Acts and an Epilogue. During the Acts there are titles of short sections. One title is "Every gash was an enemy's grave" and there is text on half the page which ends with these 2 lines: "Isabella looked down at her bleeding palms, scraped and chafed against the rough bricks of the alley. Soberly she strode into her house." The 'titles', I think, are quotes from Shakespeare, and the action of the sections are related to the quotes. If you're a Shakespere scholar, you're probably going to get a lot out of this book. But it seemed to me this central conceit was first and foremost, secondary to the story. Arguably, there are great authors who put style over substance (Joyce/Ulysses and Chandler/Big Sleep come quickly to mind). But I read this as story for 3/4ths of the length of the book, and this isn't that kind of book. Here's another example: the title reads 'As if, with Circe, she would change my shape!' and here is a line in this section: "Oldcastle responded...with whether all Venetians were but the bastard children of the over-cunning Ulysses and one of the witch Circe's pigs." If you haven't read Homer's "Odyssey" this might make no sense. I have read that work, and I'm still confused, because Circe turned a number of Ulysses' men into pigs. Does this mean Ulysses had sex with his man/pigs and babies resulted? Cereally? Or did Ulysses simply have sex with Circe's regular pigs, per Oldcastle's joke about Venetians? If you're still with me, here is, what I think, a wildly wicked extract from this book: "She [Isabella, a courtesan] saw William [Shakespeare] vault over the balcony. Isabella fell to her knees and hid her head [but from the neck down she is visible to all, right?] behind the wall of the bridge. She could see no more." WTF? I get Brandreth is going for Shakespearean wordplay, so there could be many meanings: 1) Literally, she can't see the events because she's hiding her head behind a wall; or 2) She's upset for Will and just can't watch impending doom or 3) She doesn't care anymore and is giving up on the whole story or 4) 'no more' is a character paying for oral sex or 5) this is a reference to the chapter title which is "So may the outward shows be least themselves." (I'm going with this guy "Nomore" as my theory.) It seems to me that "Isabella turned away" would have sufficed otherwise. I read the remaining 1/4th of the book as the author seemingly intended: style over substance. And I'm going to read the next one with that in mind, as I think then I'll enjoy it more.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A witty, literate take on Shakespeare's lost years - as an unwilling but capable spy in Italy. The bard's own words are cleverly used, and the intrigue, though very complicated [too many characters?] moves along at a good pace. I would certainly read young William's further adventures overseas ...

[Tripfiction · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’ve got an odd relationship with Shakespeare in Britain. Sayings from his plays pepper our language and English teachers wrestle with the problem of how to work his sixteenth century plays into the timetable of twenty-first century teenagers because they believe (some of the more romantic anyway) that they’re part of the literary and cultural heritage of our country. And you just need to pay a short visit to his birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon to see that the fascination with the Bard and his plays is not confined to this sceptered isle.

Yet, despite so much interest in his plays, we know very little about the man himself – just a few odd facts and stories – and this vacuum provides other creative artists with inspiration for works of their own. The current poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy wrote Anne Hathaway about the imagined relationship between Shakespeare and his wife, and in the 1990’s the film Shakespeare in Love was a smash hit, its plot linking an imaginary love affair of Shakespeare’s with his writing of Romeo and Juliet. It’s this winning formula, the blend of fact and fiction, that Benet Brandreth follows in The Spy of Venice.

The novel starts with the young Will still in Stratford. He’s a bit of a lad and popular with the ladies, although not with the local landowner after he’s been found poaching. It’s here that fact and fiction meet for the first time in the novel, and who’s to say where one ends and the other begins? After all, although Shakespeare is far more famous, a lot less is known about him than, say, Thomas Cromwell, whose life in Tudor England forms the basis for Hilary Mantel’s best sellers Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.

There’s a good reason why there is so much focus on the period. As many English history buffs would agree, the years of the Tudors are the most dramatic and romantic in English history. The main characters, especially King Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth, are larger-than-life individuals and their years on the throne are marked by blood and betrayal and desperate struggles for money and power. They are also times of rapid, unpredictable change, when England is trying to establish itself on the European stage, jealously guarding its sovereignty and determined not to allow any foreign countries any influence over its domestic policy.

It’s onto this stage that William Shakespeare steps, but not as the figure we’re familiar with. Rather than meeting an enigmatic playwright with a high forehead, an undistinguished moustache and a blank expression (from the only portrait that is definitely his) we encounter a kind of Elizabethan James Bond – dashing, tough, ingenious and witty. In short, the Brandreth Shakespeare is the perfect hero for a fast-moving historical romp.

And as a bonus for Shakespeare lovers, if we pay attention as the novel proceeds we get to identify some references to the plays. William’s friend Oldcastle, for example, is a dead ringer for Falstaff [1], while the arch-villain (confusingly known as Prospero [2]) is a match for Lago [3] in his malevolence. We also have one character in London exiting a scene hurriedly pursued by a bear [4], while in an Italian city, groups of young men pursue each other through the streets with murder on their minds [5].

So, if you’re a doublet and hose fan who also likes thrillers, you have a treat in store. The Spy of Venice offers a trip to a rapidly-shifting, violent world characterized by uncertainty and intrigue, as well as by political and religious turmoil. What a relief that it all happened over 400 years ago and that we live in such a different Europe today….

[1] Henry IV and Henry V

[1] The Tempest

[1] Othello

[1] The Winter’s Tale

[1] Romeo and Juliet

[1] Henry IV and Henry V

[2] The Tempest

[3] Othello

[4] The Winter’s Tale

[5] Romeo and Juliet

Over on our blog we chat to the author: http://www.tripfiction.com/novel-set-...

[Artemiz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Spy of Venice by Benet Brandreth is a speculation about what Shakespeare did those years when history has no record about him and how come does he knows so much about Italy. The story was interesting but it was not engaging. It contradiction, I know, but that's how it was. The story about young Shakespeare's adventures in Stratford, London, on a way to Venice and in Venice, its all interesting, but it was really easy to stop reading and to chose something else to do instead of reading and that's why it took me a week to read those 448 pages.

The story starts with young Shakespeare playing couple of pranks on a one person in Stratford, who he should not have done it, and be course of that he has to leave his parents, wife and three children, and leave Stratford.

He goes to London, where he hopes to find some job in theater. But the trouble follows him to London too, partly by his own fault, partly by those who had noticed him and want to use his sharp quill and quick wit.

On a way to Venice another disaster strikes and the only way to stay alive is to start to play part of another. But with it he and his companion get tangled even more with the dangerous story and people. Only William's quick thinking and pure luck save their lives and they also can finish the assignment why they were sent to Venice in a first place.

Like I said, it's all very interesting, just not interesting enough to want to read it every free moment you got.

[Jane Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

For most of this book I was thoroughly enjoying it and looking forward to giving it a 5 star rating. But in the final hundred or so pages, it seemed to go rapidly downhill. There was so much plotting and counter plotting, with long accounts of fights, brawls and squabbles, that I rapidly lost interest. Elements that apparently had been brought in to add intrigue and suspense just seemed scrappy and untidy. I'll spare you the details because they would be spoilers, I'll just say the book is worth reading because of the first three quarters, full of interesting characters, witty dialogue and a plot that keeps you reading, but the final part lets it down.

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first time I've read a contemporary book set in Shakespeare's world that really had the feel of the period. Anyone who sets up to fictionalize Shakespeare has a challenge on his hands just writing in language that doesn't sound pathetic next to the original; Benet Brandreth has met that challenge ably. The plot is twisty and exciting; I'd have been certain this irresponsible young man, Will, could never survive the intrigues he's gotten involved in except that his last name is Shakespeare and he hasn't even gotten to the Globe Theater yet. Recommended for fans of Shakespeare and spy thrillers alike.

[Clemens Schoonderwoert · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of a sudden and to my surprise this delightful book came to my attention, and I have to admit that the book has been a most fascinating and thrilling read.
This wonderful debut novel by this new author about the exploits of William Shakespeare really got me gripped from start to finish, and it did give me great joy overall, and although I'm not familiar with these kind of phrases symbolising Shakespeare, for me they have been very educative and in this book you'll find plenty of them, still I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed them for they give this book a certain richness to an already marvellous thriller story.
Storytelling is of a very good quality, the historical details as so far they are correct have been worked out perfectly within this story, and the suspense gives this book an extra dimension in quality and entertainment.
The book itself starts, and will remain in the year AD 1585, where we find William Shakespeare at first in Stratford-upon-Avon, his home-town in Warwickshire.
After one ill-advised seduction to many William Shakespeare has to flee Stratford, and so he goes to London to seek his fortune there only to be selected by great men of the realm who value his way with words.
Finally William finds himself on an important embassy to Venice, and once there he will have to deal with Catholic assassins as well as a killer who lurks in the shadows.
What follows is a very suspenseful thriller with William Shakespeare in the lead role, and many other wonderful and great characters within this story, whether real or fictional, making this book such a superb tale to read.
Very much recommended, for this is "A Most Formidable Debut"!

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was way more fun than it had any right to be. How does young, bored 21 year glove maker apprentice William Shakespeare make his way from Stratford to London and then on to Venice? Europe in 1585 is a dangerous place and danger finds Shakespeare even in his little corner of England. Joining a company of players -- including Nick Oldcastle and John Heminges -- Shakespeare finds himself at the center of a political/religious/revenge plot launched by the newly elected Pope Sixtus V and carried out by his chief henchman, the mustache twirling Machiavel with the prescient name of Giovanni Prospero, the Count of Genoa. Needless to say, hijinks ensue! The book is impeccably researched and smartly written - featuring nods to future plays and poems yet to be written as Shakespeare quickly grows from an impetuous youth brimming with untapped potential into the man who writes his own story. Even if Oldcastle humorously tells him he's terrible at original plots -- while plotting against their enemies in Venice! Like Shakespeare in Love but without the glaring historical inaccuracies. I loved this book and cannot wait to read his follow up, The Assassin of Verona.

[Daniel Villa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A thriller? Well no it didn’t feel like one. Was literally on the edge of my patience seat waiting for a thrill.

I REALLY tried to like this book yet I felt I was lied to.

1. It’s set up as a play, in regards to its breakdown.
Characters are introduced, a prologue, interludes, five acts and an epilogue. Ok I get it’s in honor is Shakespeare, this is after all a “Shakespeare Novel”
2. The Ridiculously Short Chapters! Why? Why? Seriously why I want to know.
3. The super long titles of each chapter, personally distracted me I didn’t see how some related to what I was reading.
4. In prose and dialogue it is Shakespearean no doubt of that the author does an exceptional job in this. For me this translated to reading slower than accustomed in order to fully grasp what I was reading.
5. In regards to the plot and story.....well it seemed slow. Very slow I honestly just finished it because I felt bad for not finishing it.

[Simon Binning · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first book in a long time I haven't manage to finish. The idea is a good one - fill in the missing gap in Shakespeare's young life. But the story is all over the place; I'm not sure if the author is sure what style he wants to write in; at times he apes Shakespeare himself, at others it is almost a pastiche of Dumas. It is full of people who are obviously meant to be inspiration for his own future characters. Most of the events stretch credibility well beyond breaking point, and it gave me no sense of the time or the places in which it was set.

[Enzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really entertaining book. But first things first. This is not a biography, this is a work of fiction, placing William Shakespeare in an adventure in Venice. The Author really makes it fun though. Then explains a little of Shakespeares lost years. So instead of a Theorie, the author launches a complete adventure of what might have been.
Shakespeare turns out was a good spook. Ok, not James Bond, especially in this book. But the spark and ideas are great. Why couldn't Shakespeare base his upcoming plays on his adventures during the lost years.

Lots of fun!

[LJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book because I love Shakespeare and thought it was an awesome idea to put him as a character in a book. I was a little bit disappointed that it did not feature anything that happened in Shakespeare's actual life. I'm afraid this book is nothing as good as C.J. Sansom's books as the summary suggests.
There are some entertaining twists and turns and some names from Shakespeare's plays are names of the characters which I liked.
However, I found connecting or sympathising with the characters difficult and did not really care what happened to them. The story, while still including adventure and action, was not as interesting as it could have been. I did struggle to get to the end.

[Francis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm always skeptical about books or films that start with an action flash-forward. It always seems to say, "yes, the start might be boring but hold in there because it gets exciting eventually," rather than building the tension organically.

And zounds this story takes a long time to get going. The first 40% or so is more or less redundant.

Massively overlong for a book billed as a 'thriller', even when the plot is finally underway it moves like a glacier. The prose is uniformly overstuffed.

Tbh I found this all pretty much unreadable.

[Marie (UK) · Rating 3 out of 5]

William shakespeare in an alternate life? I am not sure what this book sets out to achieve. I found it quite difficult to absorb, I don't understand the need to title ever chapter in this wordy manner - I end up not reading the titles. For me it just went on a bit. Was it meant to mirror one of his plays or just be the setting he would use for his later plays? I am not sure I see Shakespeare as the person in this book.

[Risa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is kind of an odd one; good characters, and the setting and Shakespearean-ness is well done. Even the dropped Shakespeare quotes (not the chapter titles but the in-text ones) are nearly seamless. But the plot is not really that interesting, and I got bogged down thinking about how, if all the characters are using Latin to communicate, Shakespeare's incomparable phrasing is actually just translated Latin quotes from his friends.

[Francesca Bridgewater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written in pseudo contemporary language. Not too bothered by the conceit that Shakespeare might have gone to Venice, but slightly bothered by how well they all conversed in Latin. Even accepting that they would have been better at it than current speakers. Maybe that’s reasonable. As a plot it was a little far fetched but interesting insights into contemporary Venetian life.

[Amandeep Sibia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent enough. Slow to actually get going and then extremely rapid through the final few chapters. Almost gave up and not totally satisfied having got through it.

[Hermien · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. Very cleverly done and it was good fun to recognise the historical figures and events.

[Mustafa-Jafar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not complete: abandoned at 75%.

[Stan Rea · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Shakespeare is 20, married with three children, and works for his father. He is bored and looking for adventure whether it is through minor poaching or chasing various damsels around his hometown of Stratford. After being caught chasing one damsel too many, he is forced to leave Stratford and strike out on his own in London. Fortunately he falls in with a group of players he had previously met in Stratford. Perhaps a career in the theater is in the works?

William and his merry men obtain a booking to travel to Venice with the British Ambassador. But all is not as it seems. When the dust clears William finds himself alone save one other actor, stuck in Venice, impersonating the ambassador of England and trying to keep it straight who is killing who, and more importantly, why are they killing each other and how do they get out alive?

Benet Brandreth has crafted a renaissance spy story that wonders what Shakespeare was doing between the time he left Stratford and the time he is first heard of in London. As a spy story it is interesting. There’s a lot of back-stabbing (literal and figurative) as well as front stabbing and poisoning as well. Intrigues and double crosses abound.

What makes this story interesting for the Bardwatcher is how the author weaves experiences into William’s imagined life that later show up in his plays. Characters named Borachio and Prospero and phrases such as “screw your courage to the sticking point” abound. At one point in the story, a bear is used to force an exit. Most of the action takes place in Italy or Venice, the setting of more than a dozen of his plays. Court intrigue and masks and romance all play a part as well.

[Larry · Rating 2 out of 5]

About page 90 I was about to stop reading this call it quits and give this at best 1 star. The gratuitous violence involving animals not once but twice in the Bear Pits of Shoreditch was totally unnecessary, unsettling and pure laziness by the author. Anyone with a brain is aware that the London’s boundaries in Elizabethan times was home to disreputable “entertainment” including the infamous Bear Pits. The author subjected the reader to the mindless cruelty simply so he could use the infamous line of direction from The Winter’s Tale: “Exit pursued by a bear”. What faux intellectualism, manipulation and thoughtlessness! The many options available for meetings in the area are endless; The Theatre (pre Globe), ale houses, any amount of gathering places. But his need for sheer sensationalism won out in order for that box to be ticked for one line that authenticated his protagonist. I decided to continue as I don’t like to rate a book without complete reading and finished it with a massive increase to 2 stars. All I watched for in the remainder of the reading was how much original effort would he put into incorporating WS’s plays and the strain was evident and painful and predictable. Even the use of some Elizabethan words and phrases seem forced when used back to back with modern day English. I will not be reading the second in this series as I have no doubt, he will return to sensational positions and situations for no other reason than sheer laziness to show he is knowledgeable about the Bard. I would advise him not to give up his day job!

[Marybeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just where did William Shakespeare disappear to when he left Stratford-upon-Avon and headed to London? Well, first of all, as Benet Brandreth tells it, wherever he went was at the relief of his family. Will is a troublemaker and womanizer, two attributes that get him in more and more trouble in Brandreth’s novel.

Will heads to Venice, Italy, as part of a band of players accompanying an English ambassador seeking funds to help arm England against Spain. William is young, headstrong, unheedful of danger - a fun-loving rogue who gets tangled up in webs of intrigue that can only occur among the squabbling factions of Venice in the 1500s. As Brandreth tells this tale, a number of the Bard’s future characters and plot lines show up and it’s fun to recognize them as they appear. But it’s not really necessary to have a knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays to enjoy this book. The author may be better at writing action scenes than of more quiet moments, but fortunately there are more action scenes than quiet moments. Jump in the players’ cart or the spy’s gondola and go along for the ride!