Interred With Their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell

"The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones."

This quotation from William Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar evokes an anticipatory frisson in the reader who sees it on the flyleaf of Jennifer Lee Carrell's thrilling mystery, Interred With Their Bones. Find this book in our catalog.

Any reader willing to suspend disbelief and to embark with Shakespearean scholar and director Kate Stanley on a astonishing and gruelling quest to find a lost Shakespearean manuscript while simultaneously saving herself from a stalker will recognize that this quotation has become way more sinister and portentious than when Mark Anthony originally uttered it during his funeral oration for Caesar. Sure enough, it turns up as one of the clues to the whereabouts of documents and letters that will lead to the location of the lost manuscript, and might also unveil the secret of the true identity of William Shakespeare.

The book opens as Kate is directing rehearsals for a new production of Hamlet in the modern Globe Theatre in London. Reluctantly she allows herself to be interrupted by her former mentor, Rosalind Howard, from whom she has been estranged for years. Roz gives her a mysterious box, claiming to have made a groundbreaking discovery, and agreeing to meet Kate elsewhere that evening to explain all. Before Roz can reveal the secret to Kate, the Globe burns to the ground and Roz is found dead . . . murdered precisely in the manner of Hamlet’s father. Inside the box Kate finds the first piece in a Shakespearean puzzle, setting her on a high-stakes treasure hunt for the highly valuable manuscript.

As the trail unrolls, Kate is aided by a mysterious security operative, an august Shakespearean actor, a Harvard scholar, and an extravagantly rich grande dame who is a ruthless collector of Shakespeareana. Each one of Kate's confederates has a personal agenda to pursue, and we wonder just how far each one will go; for, as they travel from London to Harvard to the American West their path is littered with dead bodies killed in the manner of the most gruesome deaths in Shakespeare's plays. Who is the killer, and who is stalking Kate herself, whispering terrifyingly in her ear in the dark of the library stacks at night?

People who liked The Da Vinci Code will love this book: there are many tantalizing and ingeneous clues buried in hidden manuscripts, historic libraries, and personal papers. Readers will learn much Shakespearean lore and decifer arcane signs and symbols. There are many twists and turns, at least two mysteries intertwined, and tragic stories of love, conspiracy and death from long ago.

Readers who like this literary adventure may also like these:

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

In particular, you will enjoy The Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber, which involves a distinguished Shakespearean scholar found tortured to death, a lost manuscript and its secrets buried for centuries, and an encrypted map that leads to incalculable wealth.