MRHill

Alice Petrovka is a school teacher by day; at night she writes and produces plays in her own theater. She is also a Marlovian, someone who believes the works of William Shakespeare were actually written by Elizabethan playwright and sometime spy Christopher Marlowe.

Alice also questions her marriage and, sometimes, her own sanity. When she suddenly finds herself waking up in Renaissance London, Alice isn't sure whether she fell through a tear in the fabric of time or is suffering a psychotic break. Reality or unreality, Alice is caught up in the intrigue that surrounded Marlowe’s life and his mysterious death. In the process, she discovers a truth that many in her own time will kill to protect.

Author Ellen Wilson has done a masterful job with In the Shadow of Shakespeare, her second novel. She ingeniously weaves a plot between two worlds, Alice's contemporary United States and Marlowe's 16th century England, with well-developed characters and an amazing knack for Olde English dialog. The book encompasses multiple genres—part romance, part science fiction, part historical fiction, part spy novel. You don't have to be an admirer of The Bard or a Marlovian to enjoy this book. You've just got to pick it up.