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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"And Marlowe's secret life as an intelligencer began", 1 Jun 2004
Leslie Silbert presents a very enticing book, using two different story lines, one in England at the end of the sixteenth century and one in the present. These events are of course interrelated, making the book a very enjoyable read and allowing us to understand better what is happening in our times. It is easy to notice that Silbert has a fair amount of knowledge about the historic topic she explores and the writing in the passages set in the times of Elizabeth I is great. However, when she gets into the present day part of the book, we observe a clear deterioration in the quality of her writing.In England, 1593, Christopher Marlowe is enjoying his huge success as a play writer, but he is not only that. He is also a counterfeiter of English shillings, and a spy (intelligencer) at the queen's service. There is a war for power going on at this time to obtain the position as right hand of the queen. The contenders are Sir Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex, and Marlowe assists Cecil in the struggle. The ploys and counter ploys that each side fabricates and puts in practice are clever and exciting enough to keep the reader interested. In the present time in London, the Baron is in the process of stealing an old manuscript that contains a crucial secret. When he loses his life in the process, Kate Morgan, a private eye in New York, is assigned to investigate his death and the reasons behind the theft. Her client, Cidro Medina, is the owner of the manuscript and wants to know what its contents and value are. Kate, much as the author herself, is not only a private detective, but also a Renaissance scholar. She explains to Medina that the writer of the manuscript, Thomas Phellipes, was a master at breaking codes, and none other than the right hand of the founder of the secret service at Marlowe's times. She then starts focusing most of her energy in deciphering the contents of the manuscript, but is diverted several times by people that are trying to steal the document for themselves. Overall, this is a very good novel, but besides the somewhat sloppy writing in the current times passages I was a little disappointed by the scarce detail given about the code breaking process. The author focuses a lot more in the action when dealing with Kate Morgan, than in explaining more thoroughly how she breaks each code. I think that if Silbert had elaborated more in this aspect she would have maintained the reader's interest at a higher level in the Morgan part of the book.
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