Pale Companion A Shakespearean Murder

Midsummer 1601. Nick Revill and his fellow actors in the Chamberlains Men are journeying across the Wiltshire Downs for a country-house presentation of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream. It should be a pleasant, well-paid jaunt to celebrate a noble marriage, but things go wrong from the start. On a brief stopover in the market town of Salisbury, the locals make clear their dislike of actors by beating up Nick, a painful experience relieved only by his meeting with the local magistrate Adam Fieldingand Fieldings beautiful daughter Kate. When the Chamberlains Men arrive at their destination, Instede House, they enter a tense family atmosphere. Lord Elcombe is pushing his older son into a marriage that the son seems set against, while in the nearby woods a wild man called Robin talks in riddles of long-hidden family secrets. In another quarter of the great estate lodges a traveling band of fire-and-brimstone morality players called the Paradise Brothers. The first death, when it occurs, looks like suicide, but Nick isnt so sure, and he finds himself investigating alongside the company of Adam Fielding. Then a second murder happens right under Nicks nose ... and turns the Dream into a nightmare. The witty narrative, laced with puns and word play so popular in this period, makes this an enjoyable racy tale.Sunday Telegraph

Midsummer 1601. Nick Revill and his fellow actors in the Chamberlain's Men are journeying across the Wiltshire Downs for a country-house presentation of his friend and mentor Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. But what should be a pleasant, well-paid jaunt to celebrate a noble wedding gets worse and worse, with a sinister arranged marriage, a possible suicide, and finally a case of outright murder against an ancient backdrop of Stonehenge.

Midsummer 1601. Nick Revill and his fellow actors in the Chamberlain’s Men are journeying across the Wiltshire Downs for a country-house presentation of his friend and mentor Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But what should be a pleasant, well-paid jaunt to celebrate a noble wedding gets worse and worse, with a sinister arranged marriage, a possible suicide, and finally a case of outright murder against an ancient backdrop of Stonehenge.