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In 1593, the brilliant and controversial young playwright Christopher Marlowe was stabbed to death in a Deptford lodging house. The circumstances were shady, the official account - a violent quarrel over the bill, or 'recknynge' - long regarded as dubious. This is a fully revised and updated version.
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The Reckoning is the first full-length investigation of the killing, tracing Marlowe's shadowy political dealings, his involvement in covert intelligence work, and the charges of heresy and homosexuality against him. Critical new evidence is uncovered about his three companions on that last day in Deptford, and about the sinister role of the informer Richard Baines. But more than that, The Reckoning is an enthralling revelation of the whole extraordinary underworld of Elizabethan crime and espionage, a 'secret theatre' in which nearly every historical figure familiar to us, from hack poet to queen's high minister, seems to have played a part. Here, in a tour-de-force of precise scholarship and dazzling ingenuity, Charles Nicholl penetrates four centuries of obscurity to expose not only a complex and unsettling story of entrapment and betrayal, chimerical plots and sordid felonics, but also a fascinating vision of the underside of an entire culture.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An outstanding piece of historical detective work.,
By ronanpaterson@tinyonline.co.uk (Northumberland ,England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Reckoning: M: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (Paperback)
This is one of the best books about Elizabethan England I have ever read, but it is much more than that. Charles Nicholls has reached back four hundred years to tear aside the web of subterfuge which has obscured the crime that struck down a genius in his prime. Marlowe was a meteoric, if controversial talent, outstripping all his rivals, including the young Shakespeare. But his dealings with the vicious underworld of Elizabeth's police state brought him within the orbit of utterly ruthless men. For a time he was able to keep one step ahead of retribution, but in the end he had strayed too far beyond the acceptable limits of official tolerance. This book is a fascinating testament to the persistence and insight of an outstanding detective, as Charles Nicholls manages, in spite of elapsed time and concerted attempts at concealment, to piece together a story more fascinating than any fictional murder investigation. His insight into the period, his grasp of significant detail, his ability to see beyond the obvious, and above all the sheer depth of his knowledge make this book a work of considerable scholarship, but it doesn't read like a scholarly work. It reads like one of the most gripping thrillers you could ever find. The best book I read all year.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Second thoughts are enlightening,
By melh "melh" (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (Paperback)
The second edition of this work has many virtues, not least some rethinking of the grand conspiracy theory suggested in the first. It uses Nicholl's characteristic minute examination of sources and background to draw clear and (sometimes) solid conclusions, but also to develop theories based on evidence and deduction. Keeping fact and assumption apart without becoming tedious may be the author's greatest gift as a historian. He's also a cracking writer and this is a thrilling story to tell - we start with a murder, and move onwards inexorably to ask WHY?
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keeping an eye on Marly,
By Last Goodbye (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe (Paperback)
Part of the reason this story is so captivating is the unknown element; there are things that we don't know about and questions we will never know the answer to. Marlowe's life between his time at Corpus Christi and his death was intertwined with that of the Elizabethan secret service, distancing it even further from the truth. But that's what makes you want to read this book - you want to know what happened, where he went and with who. You want to be able to solve the mystery of why he was murdered. Short of some significant new evidence coming forward we will never really know what happened in Deptford on 30th May 1593, but this book proves that all is not as it seems with the official story. It walks down the back streets and alleyways of Elizabethan England and reports to you what it sees.I'm in the process of reading this book for the fourth time, and I know it won't be the last. The story is fascinating, and I guarantee that once you start it you will want to follow it through every twist and turn it takes.
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