The Mad Courtesan --Signed--

MARSTON, EDWARD [Keith Miles]

ISBN 10: 1890208833 / ISBN 13: 9781890208837

Published by Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press, 2001., 2001

About this Item

Trade paperback. Softcover. SIGNED by Edward Marston. Very fine copy. Seller Inventory # 3004441

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Mad Courtesan --Signed--

Publisher: Scottsdale: Poisoned Pen Press, 2001.

Publication Date: 2001

Binding: Soft cover

Condition: Like New

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis:

"In this riotous fifth novel...the tragedies being performed onstage pale in comparison to all the blood and thunder offstage." -The Washington Post Book World Though the lusty star of Lord Westfield's Men, Laurence Firethorn, is always ripe for seducing women bewitched by his art, the vicious rivalry that disrupts the acting troupe erupts between two other players. Owen Elias is a surly, envious Welshman, while Sebastian Carrick is an amiable and attractive gentleman. Their onstage duels become ever more realistic, but it is an axe that splits open Sebastian's head one night in a Clerkenwell alley. Company book holder Nicholas Bracewell, accustomed to damage control, begins to investigate the victim's death and learns that in life, he was prone to make enemies from his weakness for women and his willingness to welch on debts. A web of deception has in fact been spun that stretches from lowly to high ranking courtesans, all the way to the Virgin Queen. And what of the horse Nimbus, promised to perform Pegasus-like at the very top of St. Paul's Church? Edward Marston, under his real name, was raised in Wales and went on to study modern history at Oxford. He has been a university lecturer, radio, television, and theatre dramatist, and in addition to writing has worked as an actor, director, and dramatist. His Elizabethan novel, The Roaring Boy, was a 1996 Edgar Allan Poe Award nominee for best novel. He lives in Kent.

From the Inside Flap:

y romp, solidly grounded on fascinating historical detail." Kirkus Reviews
The axe murder of gentleman player Sebastian Carrick is only the first of many bitter blows to strike the celebrated acting troupe of Westfield's Men. In these straits, only one man has the wit to keep the company afloat -- stage manager and company mainstay Nicholas Bracewell. And as Good Queen Bess sinks ever-closer to death, only clever Nicholas can find the connection between the troupe's misfortunes and the shadow that is falling over all of England . . . .