A Stage for Murder

Master of Defense #5

by Peter Tonkin

"Expertly crafted. A must read for fans of Shakespeare and the period." Richard Foreman.

Christmas 1598.

Will Shakespeare and the Chamberlain’s Men are desperate. Locked in a legal dispute with Giles Allen their landlord, they have been homeless for more than a year. Forbidden to use The Theatre and forced to share stages with their rivals, they are going bankrupt in spite of their popularity at court.

As the New Year and yet another cripplingly expensive court appearance looms, they secretly dismantle their playhouse - and plan to transport it to the South Bank.

But as the stage comes down, disaster strikes – there is a body beneath it. A frozen corpse with a look of utter horror on its face.

They summon Tom Musgrave, Master of Logic, hoping that he will be able to solve the mysterious death.

But even as Tom goes to work, their attempt to cart the dismantled theatre across the frozen Thames almost costs Shakespeare his life – and reveals yet another corpse. Both carry coded messages which refer to an ancient, rarely-performed old play called Hamlet.

Set against a meticulously researched background, Tonkin’s fifth Musgrave murder mystery explores the fatal outcomes of the political tangles of the time, reaching from war-torn Ireland, secretive estates in the English midlands and the great University spy-factories of Oxford and Cambridge to the deadly snake-pit which is Elizabeth’s court in London at the dawn of 1599.

Praise for Peter Tonkin

‘Riveting tale full of fast action’ – Publishers Weekly

‘Edge-of-the-seat terror’ – Daily Post

‘Good technical detail, plus an exciting climax, makes this entertaining reading’ – Publishing News>/b>

Peter Tonkin was born in Northern Ireland, and was raised in the UK, Holland, Germany, and the Persian Gulf. He has written forty novels including the Richard Mariner Series.

Genres: Mystery

382 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 18, 2018

About the author

Peter Tonkin's first novel, KILLER, was published in 1978. His work has included the acclaimed "Mariner" series that have been critically compared with the best of Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley and Hammond Innes.

More recently he has been working on a series of detective thrillers with an Elizabethan background. This series, "The Master of Defense", has been characterised as 'James Bond meets Sherlock Holmes meets William Shakespeare'. Each story is a classic 'whodunit' with all the clues presented to the reader exactly as they are presented to the hero, Tom Musgrave. The Kirkus Review described them as having 'Elizabethan detail, rousing action sequences, sound detection...everything a fan of historical mysteries could hope for."

Reviews

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Due to a dispute with their landlord, the Theatre used by Will Shakespeare and the Chamberlain's Men has been abandoned and the troupe without their own stage to play on for a year. Now they've come up with a plan to fix the untenable situation, but they hit a bit of a snag in the execution. While secretly dismantling the theatre to transport and rebuild it across the river, they stumble across a dead body hidden under the stage. Master of Defense and Logic Tom Musgrave is summoned to examine the find and figure out what happened - but he has barely begun to investigate when another corpse turns up, and soon Tom finds himself embroiled in a complicated mystery involving, among other ingredients, spies, the war in Ireland, mysterious disfigured strangers, and a half-forgotten play about a Danish Prince that promptly captures the imagination of a certain playwright.

Complex, full of taut suspense and fastpaced action - including the must-have masterful fencing scenes that are part of what I love about this series - and rich in historical detail and atmosphere. I was particularly thrilled to see this fifth book in the series once again delve into the Elizabethan intelligence apparatus, a subject which never ceases to fascinate me. An excellent read that had me hooked from the start.

*** I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. ***

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christmas 1598 and because of a dispute the theatre where Shakespeare and the Chamberlain’s Men perform is being dismantled and moved, hopefully before the owner is informed. On doing so a body is discovered. Shakespeare is dispatched to bring Tom Musgrave, Master of Logic, to the site, hoping that he can solve the mystery. But this is not the last body they found as Musgrave is drawn into political intrigues.
With its varied range of characters, and an interesting and entertaining well-written mystery, it kept my interest right to the end.

[Andrew Cooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rattling good plot

The plot is incredibly complex but also logical - but you must pay close attention!
The reason it’s not a five star review is that the punctuation is awful! Phrases trying to stand as sentences; full stops used where commas would give better sense, and overlong sentences that would benefit from being broken down into shorter sentences. Great stories anyway.

[Peter Barrass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really like these books

[LucyLui · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Stage For Murder by Peter Tonkin

Title: A Stage For Murder
Author: Peter Tonkin
First Published: May '18
Publisher: Independently Published
Genre: #Historical Fiction
Pages: 380
Price on Amazon: Paperback £7.99 Kindle: £2.99
ISBN: 1982904763

Will Shakespeare and the Chamberlains men are desperate, they have been fighting with their landlord Giles Allen for so long and have been homeless for about a year.

Finally deciding to take down their stage and move to South Bank, they begin to dismantle the playhouse in secret. But when a body is found underneath with a look of total horror on its face. They call in Tom Musgrave to solve the case as they attempt to make the playhouse, more bodies are discovered with coded messages on them.

This book sounded really interesting and I was really looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately, I found it to be really slow and in turn quiet boring. I found I couldn't get on with it and it just didn't grab my attention. The more I read the more bored I found myself getting.

Therefore I did not finish this book and this is the reason for my rating.

Thank You to the author for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating - One out of Five Stars
Would I Read Again? - No
Would I Recommend? - No
Would I read other books by the same author? - Yes

Reviews for this book can be found on:
Amazon (UK) under Lu's Reviews
Goodreads,
Net Galley (If a NetGalley Book)
My Blogs at http://www.readingbeyondobsession.co.uk/

Links to this review can be found at:
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[Voirrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think these stories get more complex as the series progresses - and this is the deepest and most multi-layered so far.

Our Master of Defence, and of Logic, is caught up in genuine historical events; the 'stealing away' of their theatre by the Chamberlain's Men to be re-erected as The Globe, the boxing of Essex's ear by the Queen, and his various machinations for money, revenge, her throne... And the Irish Rebellion and the atrocities committed by both sides.

Real people continue to populate the story as in the previous ones, from Edmund Spencer the poet to Robert Cecil, making the whole seem as if the characters and events are just as much a part of Elizabethan history as those above.

Thomas Musgrave's collaborator in this adventure is a totally unexpected twist - and works very well.

I do find Mr Tonkin's occasional habit of sprinkling full stops. Around almost. At random somewhat disconcerting; but I have learnt to cope with it as the adventure and the characters are so very well worked!