Shakespeare with a Crime Story in the Background (or Vice Versa)

Abstract

The author concentrates on two thrillers by Jennifer Lee Carrell: Interred with Their Bones (2007) and Haunt Me Still (2010). The protagonists, Katharine Stanley (theater director with a reputation as an expert in both Shakespeare and the Renaissance occult) and Benjamin Pearl (founder of an elite British security firm), are conducting a double investigation. They are trying to find the murderer who kills his victims in a manner resembling Shakespearean characters. The investigation leads them to literary riddles — in the first novel, they hunt for the lost play Cardenio, in the second — they try to find an unknown version of Macbeth. These are, of course, real murders and there are police officers who try find the killers. But only the people who are connected with Shakespeare (actors, scholars, etc.) can solve all the puzzles. The protagonists wander a maze of university libraries, dark museum rooms, theater scenes, and even caves with 17th- and 19th-century corpses. They visit a settlement named Shakespeare in the New Mexico desert, where an eccentric millionaire has built a replica of Elsynor.

The author of the article pays attention to the pieces of Shakespearian puzzle which are not widely known, such as Macbeth as a famously cursed play and Shakespeare authorship theories.

The most important element in both novels (in the author’s opinion) is that Shakespeare’s plays are still a value some people are ready to kill for or even die for.