The Vagabond Clown

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‘I hoped that we might be safe but we have not seen the last of them, after all. They want more blood.’During a performance of their new play, A Trick to Catch a Chaste Lady, Westfield’s Men are sabotaged, and they find themselves in the throngs of an audience-player melee. In the midst of the rotten-vegetable battlefield, one of the audience members is found stabbed, and their masterful clown, Barnaby Gill, is discovered with a broken leg.With the company clown-less, they must find a replacement before they embark on their tour of Kent. Enter Gideon Mussett, a ruffian, scallywag and all around drunk. Thinking the victim in the theatre was an accident. Nicholas Bracewell and his fellows soon learn that there is more to this death than a drunken brawl. With a murderer still on the loose, it appears further deaths are on the cards, but who will be the second victim?Amazon.com Review"This was no random act of malice," proclaims stage manager Nicholas Bracewell, after an audience brawl disrupts the latest comedic performance by Westfield's Men, in Edward Marston's The Vagabond Clown. If there was any doubt of design behind this affray, it's quickly dispelled by the discovery of a dead spectator in the gallery, Fortunates Hope--stabbed in the back. So who wielded the dagger, and why? Bracewell and the other members of his troupe haven't the time to find out, before they are ousted from their usual stage in Elizabethan London and forced to take to the road for their income, beginning a tour of the Kent countryside that will bring them even more trouble than they could typically find in the English capital.Misfortune is guaranteed when--needing a clown to stand-in for the querulous Barnaby Gill, whose leg was broken during the riot--the company hires his hated but gifted rival, Gideon Mussett. Aware of Mussett's reputation for "drunkenness and truculence," Bracewell wrests from him a pledge to behave. However, this proxy jester proves difficult to handle from the outset, and only becomes more so as his performances gain Westfield's Men acclaim. Among his supposed infractions are several prankish attacks on the injured Gill, who has insisted on traveling with Westfield's Men in order to ensure that Mussett won't try usurping his position. But Bracewell thinks fault for his company's recent adversities may lie, instead, with another, less successful band of thespians who are also traveling through the area, and whose patron knew the murdered Hope. He's convinced of their culpability after Westfield's Men are ambushed on the open road, Gill is threatened with drowning, and Giddy Mussett is assaulted in a stable. Somebody, it appears, is determined to bring the curtain down on Bracewell's band, once and for all.The Nicholas Bracewell novels (of which The Vagabond Clown is the 13th) offer a fulfilling blend of hilarity and heart, romance and mystery. And Marston's flair for capturing both the upright and ribald elements of his Elizabethan setting is to be envied. If there's any disappointment in these pages, it's that a late scene involving a sea chase never achieves the swashbuckling excitement it promises. --J. Kingston PierceFrom Publishers WeeklyEdgar nominee Marston sends in the clowns in his 13th Nicholas Bracewell mystery (after 2002's The Bawdy Basket), once again providing an engaging look at the life of players in Shakespeare's day, with their aristocratic sponsors, resident playwrights, actor-managers and apprentice boys (who played female parts). When a riot and murder (both perhaps engineered by a jealous rival company) during a play performance deprive Westfield's Men of their London venue and cripple their clown, the company seems doomed, but ever-reliable, ever-resourceful Nicholas finds a substitute clown and helps to arrange a tour in Kent. The author vividly evokes the sights, sounds and smells of the taverns, inns, guildhalls and castles visited by the players, each of whom is a distinct personality. He shows how important it was for travelers to have skills as carpenters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights and fighters. The suspense builds, as attacks and delays by clever, ruthless adversaries imperil the company's livelihood and very existence. Excellent as the theater background is, the climax may come as a disappointment to some readers, especially those who appreciate how fervently Catholics held to their faith in Elizabethan times. FYI: Marston is the pseudonym of Keith Miles, who is also the author of The Owls of Gloucester and other titles in his Domesday Book mystery series.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.