Entered From The Sun: The Murder Of Marlowe

The Elizabethan Trilogy #3

by George Garrett

In this evocative novel, set in 1597, two men are hired by conflicting political factions to get to the bottom of Christopher Marlowe's mysterious murder. Was the famous playwright the victim of a drunken brawl or did his death have a sinister dimension of political intrigue?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Literature, British Literature

372 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

(For the British short story writer, playwright, and political activist see George Garrett)

George Palmer Garrett was an American poet and novelist. He was the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2002 to 2006. His novels include The Finished Man, Double Vision, and the Elizabethan Trilogy, composed of Death of the Fox, The Succession, and Entered from the Sun. He worked as a book reviewer and screenwriter, and taught at Cambridge University and, for many years, at the University of Virginia. He is the subject of critical books by R. H. W. Dillard, Casey Clabough, and Irving Malin.

Reviews

[Pj Mensel · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good historical novel

Where the quality of writing has a lot to do with the rating. A complex view of a complex real historical event like his 2 other Elizabethan novels. Give it a try

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, this is a glorious read. Set three years after Marlowe's death it begins with two men being recruited by two different sets of - in the beginning - unknown men to investigate the death of Christopher Marlowe. One is Hunnyman, a sometime player and gambler. The other is Captain Barfoot, the much wounded soldier.

There is a third main character, the widow Alysoun. Lover of Hunnyman, publisher and beauty. Then there is the red haired limping poet.

Their investigations are a part of this story, but so are their life stories. All three of them are vivid characters. All three of them have interior and exterior lives. They may be three of my favourite characters in fiction - warts and all.

Garrett's writing is brilliant too. It isn't driving prose but it draws you along like a cruise ship where occasionally you find yourself wanting to stop for a while and enjoy the view.

I believe this book is out of print. It is the third part of Garrett's Elizabethan Trilogy and I really, really want to read the first two books now. This is brilliant. Someone needs to get it back into print. And someone needs to make a TV/film/radio adaptation of it.

Such a good read.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabethan London, 1597. An actor and a spy are each tasked with investigating the death of playwright/spy Christopher Marlowe.

[Slmcmahon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It would seem I have an obsession, make that two obsessions (as far as reading goes at least). One is Elizabethan England (amend that to medieval and Tudor England) and the other is the murder of Christopher Marlowe.

"Entered from the Sun" follows two investigations into Marlowe's gruesome death four years after the fact. The true hero of our tale is the vibrant, brilliant and brutal city of London and all the variety of life and lives dwelling within.

Mr. Garrett writes in a style of the era yet not so far in that we in our time are unable to follow. Our sleuths are Joseph Hunnyman, a player and whatever else he needs to be, hired in a most devious fashion by an unidentified man acting as agent for ???? The second sleuth is Captain Barfoot, a soldier whose body tells the story of his many experiences in war. He is reported to be a very ugly man.

Hunnyman's advantage is knowing one of the worlds Marlowe lived in - the acting companies of London. His information is gleaned from idle conversation and gossip. Barfoot's intelligence is gleaned from the pages and pages of writing that one man's life (especially one so complicated as Marlowe's) engenders in the offices and courts of her majesty's government.

I found "Entered from the Sun" highly entertaining, funny, well written in an interesting voice.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This historical novel is about two men separately investigating the death of Christopher Marlowe, four years after the fact. The first is Joseph Hunnyman, an out of work actor; the second is William Barfoot, a tough and scarred former soldier. The beautiful, smart, and canny widow Alysoun, Joseph's lover, also plays a significant role. However, the questions surrounding Marlowe's death are only a frame for the book's real interests: an exploration of the setting and zeitgeist of Elizabethan London, and a study of the three main characters. Garrett does an excellent job of bringing the setting and characters to life, and he does is in a lovely, distinctive, and evocative prose style.

[AnnePM · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read this book as it was a gift to me from a relative. It was assumed that I would like the book because the author was a professor at my alma mater. Unfortunately, I found the book very dry. Garret may be very knowledgeable about Marlowe and the time period, but he is not a competetent mystery writer. If nothing else, a mystery should always be at least a page-turner. No such luck here.

[Thomas Atkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

LIke George Garrett's bestselling DEATH OF THE FOX, this novel offers a powerful and vivid imagining of life in Elizabethan England. HIs description of a performance at the Rose Theatre in London, down to the scents and odors, is a joy to read.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The character sketches were the best part of the book.