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kinderny 's review for:
Interred with Their Bones
by Jennifer Lee Carrell
Reading “Literature” is just not my thing. I am the type of student when given an English class essay question asking why the character’s eyes in The Giver were green, responded: “Genetics”. (Why yes, I am an NS student, how nice that you noticed.) That said, Interred with Their Bones by Jennifer L. Carrell makes literary scholarship about Shakespeare folios almost appealing. (Emphasis on almost.) However, this mystery novel itself is a good read.
Carrell indicates the basis of the story is “a deadly treasure hunt that would lead to a lost play, and a letter that might—or might not—reveal the ‘real’ identity of the playwright.…” The main character, Kate Stanley, started out as a Shakespearean scholar, but now directs Shakespeare plays instead of teaching about them. The murder of Stanley’s long time academic mentor (after hearing about the mentor’s amazing literary find) and the burning down of the recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe theater when Stanley is staging Hamlet there (for fun, I thought it really should have been “the Scottish play”) impels Stanley on her quest for truth. The breakneck pace of the story rarely slows as it caroms from England to the United States and back in search of a play by Shakespeare. Stanley’s academic expertise is helpful as she uncovers the literary and other mysteries surrounding this lost work. While Interred with Their Bones did not shoot to iconic-like cultural popularity like The Da Vinci Code, in some ways it has a similar flavor of historical conspiracies relating to modern day truth.
Carrell has an academic background, with a Ph.D. from Harvard in English and American literature, which shows in the book. The novel is filled with academic trivia and information relating to Shakespeare and his times, which enriches the flavor of the book. Carrell brings in not only the dispute regarding who actually wrote Shakespeare’s works (prominent guesses are Edward de Vere, the seventeenth earl of Oxford, and William Stanley, sixth earl of Derby), but also shows an abiding connection between Shakespeare’s plays and the pioneers of the Western United States. But this is not a work of high literature; it clearly fits in the popular mystery genre and is a light, but engaging read even for those with no interest in academics.
Carrell indicates the basis of the story is “a deadly treasure hunt that would lead to a lost play, and a letter that might—or might not—reveal the ‘real’ identity of the playwright.…” The main character, Kate Stanley, started out as a Shakespearean scholar, but now directs Shakespeare plays instead of teaching about them. The murder of Stanley’s long time academic mentor (after hearing about the mentor’s amazing literary find) and the burning down of the recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe theater when Stanley is staging Hamlet there (for fun, I thought it really should have been “the Scottish play”) impels Stanley on her quest for truth. The breakneck pace of the story rarely slows as it caroms from England to the United States and back in search of a play by Shakespeare. Stanley’s academic expertise is helpful as she uncovers the literary and other mysteries surrounding this lost work. While Interred with Their Bones did not shoot to iconic-like cultural popularity like The Da Vinci Code, in some ways it has a similar flavor of historical conspiracies relating to modern day truth.
Carrell has an academic background, with a Ph.D. from Harvard in English and American literature, which shows in the book. The novel is filled with academic trivia and information relating to Shakespeare and his times, which enriches the flavor of the book. Carrell brings in not only the dispute regarding who actually wrote Shakespeare’s works (prominent guesses are Edward de Vere, the seventeenth earl of Oxford, and William Stanley, sixth earl of Derby), but also shows an abiding connection between Shakespeare’s plays and the pioneers of the Western United States. But this is not a work of high literature; it clearly fits in the popular mystery genre and is a light, but engaging read even for those with no interest in academics.