A Serpent in the Garden (William Shakespeare Mysteries, 1)
Serpent in the Garden is an action-packed historical novel about what may have happened during Shakespeare’s lost years, during the plague and the shutting down of theatres.
The author wonders how Shakespeare managed to procure significant funds and was able to continue producing plays. As well as titbits about Shakespeare’s life and relationship with his wife, Anne, there is a main plot of murder and whodunit.
The author is successful in creating believable characters true to historical accounts and adds a flair of his own, a hard thing to achieve when writing historical fiction. It is interesting to see how the author’s use of words mirror that of the Covid-19 pandemic, when talking about the Black Death and how the Londoners back then coped with it. Furthermore, his research on the court of Elizabeth I and her men is very intriguing and is presented with its own stories to further the novel’s plot.
What I enjoyed most was Shakespeare’s own perspective as protagonist, and his ability to separate himself from what was happening in order to complete his writing, as well as using inspiration from his own life to create these world-famous stories, a common habit for nearly every writer. Overall, Linskey is able to create an Elizabethan England that we can all relate to, as well as shed light on a man who will be remembered forever.
