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A fascinating, meticulously-researched story starring both William Shakespeare, and a real-life sixteenth-century convicted murderess, Alice Arden.

Told in alternating first-person voices of each of the main protagonists, the story oscillates between the timeline leading up to Alice’s involvement in the historical murder, which took place in 1551, and Shakespeare’s ascent into play-writing, forty years later, with the publication of an unacknowledged work concerning these same events.

Self-proclaimed as both a historical work, and one with which some fictional license has been taken, the author does a terrific job of linking the two, taking the reader on a mesmerizing journey surrounding young poverty-stricken Will, his hopes and dreams, and his somewhat tentative foray into the work that will eventually make him famous.

At the same time, Alice makes for an excellent and intriguing foil; a red-headed beauty who is trapped by the expectations of her times, and her gender, into a loveless sham of a marriage. Exactly how Alice’s life plays out between these pages is a journey that, for this reader, invoked both compassion and horror, as the Middle Ages are screechingly brought to life, with all their associated political, religious, and social upheavals, underlaid by an incredible mysogyny, several episodes of horrific bubonic plague, poverty, and a series of oppressive ruling classes, each of which are redolent with corruption.

A book that is hard to put down, this is a story that will keep you reading, as much for the plot revelations surrounding both protagonists, as for the hold achieved by the incredibly immersive setting.

Highly recommended for lovers of historical fiction; anyone interested in young Will and his struggles (both real and imagined), and a first-rate, heart-wrenching murder mystery — all packaged in one abundantly readable volume.

A great big thank you to the author for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.