Anne Rutherford

A pleasant enough mystery, set at a theatre in Restoration England. Though it is a stretch to make the theatre the Globe knowing it didn't exist in Restoration England. Yes, I know, fiction and all that—I did read the author's afterword—but it's such a contradiction to what we do know about theatre at that time. The characters are a little hard to sympathize with, even Suzanne Thornton, the protagonist and amateur detective. As a character she was drawn a little flat and I hope she rounds out a bit along the series. Daniel Throckmorton is so dreadful it's hard to see how Suzanne ever could have loved him, even as a girl, which is a little tough because their relationship 20 years later is pivotal to the book and presumably will be in the series, as he owns the theater she leases and runs. Constable Samuel Pepper is a fine addition in the tradition of clueless police who are shown up by the amateur detective. It takes 186 pages for a dead body to appear, which may be a record; most of the book is about Suzanne's history and struggles to make her way in the world. The book does not gloss over how limited and dismal women's options were at the time, without ever becoming didactic about it. There are some fun details about Restoration England and the theatre, but the book is not nearly so richly evocative of the time and place as other historical novels, like Sansom's. I will probably go on to at least one more book in the series mostly because of my interest in the theatre and to see if it fills out a bit; sometimes first in series books are a little thin.… (plus d'informations)