Carrell, J.L.: The Shakespeare Secret.

A young American academic has left her career to become a noted theatre director.   While rehearsing

at Shakespeare's Globe in London, her former mentor and professor turns up and is murdered.   The

theatre is set on fire and Kate Stanley is in danger from the mysterious assassin.   She is helped by a

theatrical knigh who was due to play Hamlet's Fatherin her new production and by a very capable

retured soldier who is the murdered woman's nephew.   The plot is very involved and the action moves to Boston, Washington D.C., Idaho, New Mexico and back to England where both Wilton House and Stratford upon Avon feature before the denouement back in the USA.   A number of other

characters feature and for much of the book it is hard to tell who are good, apart from those who are

murdered along the way, and those who are bad.   The narrative is interspersed with chapters set in

the reign of James I which enhances the mystery of who wants waht and why.   A mixture of learned

exposition, sometimes perhaps too much, and fast-moving action, this is an unusual thriller which I

found quite gripping.

Camilleri, Andrea: Hunting Season

Having enjoyed previous books by Camilleri featuring Inspector Montalbano, I saw this and bought

it without reading the blurb.   While the book is set in Vigata, the year is 1880.   A young man returns

to the town to set up a pharmacy following in the footsteps of his father whose home-grown remedies

were legendary before his murder many years ago.   He soon finds himself involved with he local

nobility including the daughter of Don Filippo, the local marchesa, whom he had seen before his

exile.   Then people start to die until the final chapter when all is explained.   Something of a romp

but fitting well into what might be the earlier history of this Sicilian town.

Carroll, Jonathan: Voice of Our Shadow

Haunted by the death of his brother, Joe Lennox moves to Vienna where he meets a charismatic
couple, Paul and India Tate.   She is an artist and he is a brilliant magician; they spend more and
more time again and Joe falls in love with India.   This love is returned and, eventually, Paul
finds out and kills himself.   However, as time passes, Paul reappears to haunt the couple in various
ways which ends with India going back to him.   The book is a mixture of the everyday life of
friends and betrayal mixed with the supernatural which is to be expected from Mr Carroll.   It is
all believable even when what happens is not really possible though one is left with the distinct
thought that it might be.   Even Joe's attempt to break with India and lead a normal life with
another woman fits as does his return to Vienna and the final scary climax.