The Reckoning: The Murder of Christopher Marlowe

(Paperback)

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Description

This is an investigation of the killing of Christopher Marlowe, tracing his 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. "The Reckoning" is also a revelation of the whole extraordinary underworld of Elizabethan crime and espioinage, 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. Through Charles Nicholl's detailed research, a complex, unsettling story of entrapment and betrayal, chimerical plots and dirty tricks emerges.

Reviews

An absorbing detective story with many twists and dark secrets. It is a passionate tale that haunts the imagination -- Michael Sheldon * Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year *
Remarkable...for the first time reveals the true mystery of his death... Extraordinary * The Times *
A book full of wit, scholarship and ingenuity... Extraordinary -- Colm Toibin * Irish Times *
A remarkable academic thriller, a brilliant recontruction -- Michael Coveney * Observer *
This book blows open the world of Elizabethan espionage, and presents the most comprehensive case yet for disbelieving the official inquest * Independent *

Author Bio

Charles Nicholl has written two travel books, The Fruit Palace and Borderlines; a study of Elizabethan alchemy, The Chemical Theatre, and a biography of the pamphleteer Thomas Nashe, A Cup of News. He has also written a reconstruction of Sir Walter Ralegh's search for El Dorado, The Creature in the Map, and Somebody Else, which won the 1998 Hawthornden Prize. His work has appeared in Granta, Rolling Stone and the Independent.