The Bottom Line
Jennifer Lee Carrell, an English literature scholar, has taken a Da Vinci Code approach to Shakespeare: what if Shakespeare wrote another, undiscovered play, whose plot contained political secrets that are key parts of British history? The resulting novel, Interred with Their Bones, is a fast-paced but literate thriller featuring a Shakespeare scholar heroine who races across the globe following clues and trying to find the secret manuscript she suspects exists.
Pros
- Carrell flexes her scholarly muscles, and Interred with Their Bones is accurately detailed.
- You don’t have to be a Shakespeare aficionado to appreciate the hidden clues and plot twists.
Cons
- Carrell might dwell too much on scholarly issues for readers who are interested in more thrills.
Description
- Kate Stanley’s mentor leaves a clue to discovering a Shakespeare manuscript, then is murdered.
- Rare editions of Shakespeare’s plays mysteriously disappear or are destroyed.
- As the clues lead her to Utah and England, Kate doesn’t know who she can trust.
Guide Review - Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Kate Stanley, a Shakespeare scholar directing Hamlet at the rebuilt Globe Theater in London, gets a surprise visit from her mentor, a Harvard Shakespeare professor. When the professor is suddenly killed, she finds herself traveling all over the world, chasing down clues and trying to stay ahead of a murderer--who’s busy reenacting Shakespeare’s famous death scenes and is trying to make Kate his next victim.
Interred with Their Bones recalls the monster bestseller The Da Vinci Code, but that doesn’t mean Carrell’s book isn’t imaginative and entertaining in its own right. Central to the book is the question of who wrote Shakespeare’s plays, and clues may be hidden in places as unlikely as the King James translation of the Bible.
Interred with Their Bones will appeal to avid Shakespeare fans as well as those who only dimly remember reading Hamlet in school. Carrell’s novel is an absolute page turner.
