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THE SHAKESPEARE SECRET
by J. L. Carrell
Sphere, January 2008
480 pages
6.99 GBP
ISBN: 0751540358


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

THE SHAKESPEARE SECRET is the latest novel in a long line of thrillers seeking to cash in on the mania for conspiracies, killers and trips around the world that began with Dan Brown's THE DA VINCI CODE.

Kate Stanley, a Shakespearean scholar and now director, finds her friend and former mentor murdered in the Globe Theatre, London, shortly after she has entrusted her with a mysterious box for safekeeping. Kate is catapulted into events that will take her around the world in a quest to discover the truth behind Shakespeare.

THE SHAKESPEARE SECRET was published in the USA under the title INTERRED WITH THEIR BONES. Quite why there was a change of name for the British market is not clear, unless the publishers felt that mentioning Shakespeare in the title could lead to better sales in the Bard’s homeland.

Title aside, the book is fast-paced and exciting, but like so many thrillers of this ilk, it moves heavily towards the far-fetched and feels as though it were written with a ‘painting by numbers’ routine, the ultimate aim of it all being to have the rights snapped up for a movie. It is certainly much more plausible than any of Dan Brown’s offerings, but it is ultimately unsatisfying.

There is no doubt that Jennifer Lee Carrell knows a great deal about Shakespeare and readers will learn a lot about the playwright, but the novel also runs the risk of being bogged down by the weight of information. To convey all the intricacies of Shakespearean scholarship over the years, including the multiple debates as to who really did write those plays, takes time and some readers may feel overwhelmed by the amount of information provided.

That said, if you are looking for a good read that has the requisite excitement, violence, chases, travel and much more, you could do a lot worse than THE SHAKESPEARE SECRET.

Reviewed by Luke Croll, March 2008

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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