The Shakespeare Secret - J.L. Carrell

I picked up The Shakespeare Secret at the car boot sale a few weeks ago because the information on the back of the book appealed to me and Publishers Weekly had dubbed it "worthy of The Da Vinci Code". I'm not embarrassed to admit that I really enjoyed The Da Vinci Code and it did sound a similar kind of story, so I settled down the other night with my book while it was blowing a gale and prepared myself to get into a story as I had with Dan Browns books. The Shakespeare Secret is based around a woman called Kate, a one time academic turned Shakespeare stage director. She has a lifelong love of Shakespeare which was shared until recently with her ...  Read the complete review

"Plot twists worthy of Da Vinci Code" screams a cover quote from Publishers Weekly on the paperback edition of The Shakespeare Secret. "Ploddingly predictable" would be my personal effort, although I suspect Sphere's Marketing Department won't be using that one on the cover anytime soon. Yes, we're back in Dan Brown territory, trying to mash ancient conspiracies, cover ups and murders with modern investigations. This time, the plot surrounds William Shakespeare - partly a quest to find a new play, partly to "solve" that old chestnut: Did William Shakespeare of Stratford really write the plays attributed to him, or did someone else ...  Read the complete review

Occasionally there are books which, when released, grab my attention and make me want to get hold of a copy of it. The Shakespeare Secret was indeed one of those books, and I really wanted to read this one! I tried to get a copy on my swapping sites to no avail but luckily my local library came up trumps for me and a brand new copy was soon sitting next to my bed ready to be enjoyed by me! The Shakespeare Secret tells the story of Kate Stanley, an ex-Harvard student who now works as a director of plays at The Globe Theatre in London. One day, Kate is suddenly visited by her ex-professor and Shakespeare mogul Rosalind Hardy who tells Kate she knows something ...  Read the complete review

Katharine "Kate" Stanley is in London to direct Hamlet at the Globe Theatre when she receives a visit from her old university mentor Rosalind "Roz" Howard who hands her a package and tells her that "if you open it, you must follow where it leads..." A fire destroying part of the new Globe Theatre leaves behind a victim, Rosalind, mirroring the burning of the original Globe almost 400 years earlier to the day where the fire also left one person dead. Fleeing from the prying eyes and inquisitive mind of DCI Sinclair of the London Met Police, Kate decides to solve the riddle left by Roz so close to her death, and ultimately find out ...  Read the complete review

The year is 1613. As the sun sets over London on June 29th the Globe theatre erupts into flame resulting in the loss of a single life, a simple act of revenge following the tarnishing of an old family name. Five pages and almost four centuries later the action commences within the walls of the restored Globe theatre with a production of Shakespeares Hamlet. What follows is somewhat disjointed and is not helped by the authors desire to leap backwards and forwards in time. Sometimes by a period of hours, other times days but more often centuries. Hamlets director, an american named Kate, is given a gift by her old college mentor Roz and is informed ...  Read the complete review