I enjoyed it, and offer it up as a suggestion for people who have space in their reading schedule and an inclination toward the elements described above. It's only out in e-book form, which lets it be very inexpensive for a brand new release from award-winning authors. A fast-paced historical mystery by the author of KAREN. But the only man who could have helped him has been murdered. I can't make any claims about how well it would hold up to a period specialist's scrutiny, but it didn't clash with anything I learned in my Tudor England undergrad class. Brilliant, bookish Christopher Marlowe is fifteen years old and desperate to qualify for a scholarship to the King's School in order to escape his brutal father.

The story is definitely historical fiction. People who want some extra mental goads for setting a game in Elizabethan England (it's set in Canterbury) would benefit, and could probably lift names, places and some events for encounters and plots for an RPG. The places and people all appeared in my mind's eye with real clarity, and the story succeeded in hitting 'page-turner' status for me, pulling me back in and forward even when I might otherwise have been doing something other than reading a book. As an added bonus, enjoy a lengthy preview of The Cobblers Boy, a short novel from Elizabeth Bear and Katherine Addison Author: Scott Lynch First Release. It does a very good job of interweaving the setting, including the spoken language of the time, with very well-developed characters, especially considering how many people wander through the narrative in a relatively short book. The book is a mystery featuring historical Elizabethan playwright Christopher (Kit) Marlowe as a youth, trying to solve a murder mystery. Addison wrote The Goblin Emperor, and I'm getting near to just saying that I'll read anything she puts her name on, and Bear, while she hasn't captured my brain space so completely, is well established.

I don't often get books that are hot off the press, but caught wind of The Cobber's Boy by Elizabeth Bear and Katherine Addison this summer and pre-ordered it, so I read it shortly after its release this month.

The Cobbler's Boy by Elizabeth Bear