The Queen’s Head
An Elizabethan Mystery
Edward Marston
Having read it
★★★★★
Great stuff that deserves five stars as it was an enjoyably satisfying read, with a fair few comedic theatrics to help the plot on its way and complemented by some well-named public hostelries!
The story was well wrapped in time and place, didn’t get carried away with endless exposition, had plenty of character (decent ones too!) with lots of story and mystery to help keep the pages turning and keep you guessing as to whodunnit, of which I was correct in my guessing, but a bit slow in getting there!
A good passage
She enjoyed a tempestuous relationship with her husband and they shuttled at will between loathing and love, so much so that the two extremes sometimes became interchangeable. It made the house in Shoreditch a lively place.
‘Who is she, Barnaby?’
‘I have no idea what you are talking about.’
‘Lawrence is smitten again.’
‘Only with you, Margery,’ he said with mock innocence.
‘I feel it in my bones.’
‘Marriage has many ailments.’
‘How would you know?’
He rolled his eyes and gave her a disarming smirk. It was Sunday and Barnaby Gill had called at the house, ostensibly to pay his respects, but chiefly to feed her suspicions about the existence of a new armour in her husband’s life. When she pressed him further, he deployed innuendo and denial with such skill that he confirmed all she had guessed at. Smug satisfaction warmed him. It was always pleasing to spread marital disharmony.
A second good passage
In trying to ruin the play and achieve immortality by his public act of suicide, the tormented poet had enhanced the drama and simply given himself a worse headache.