March, 1587. Christopher Marlowes play Tamburlaine, with the incomparable Ned Alleyn in the title role, has opened at the Rose Theatre, and a new era on the London stage is born.
Yet the play is almost shut down on its opening night. For a member of the audience, Eleanor Merchant, lies dead, hit by a musket ball fired from the stage. The man with his finger on the trigger? A bit-part player named Will Shakespeare.
Convinced of Shakespeares innocence, Marlowe determines to find out what really happened. When a second body is found floating in the River Thames, it becomes clear that Eleanor Merchants death was no accident, and that something deeper and darker is afoot. And why is the Queens spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, taking a close personal interest in the case?
Fans of Edward Marstons amusing Elizabethan theater mysteries, featuring Nicholas Bracewell, will enjoy Kit Marlowes part in the drama at the Crimson Rose