Black Death

In the autumn of 1592, Robert Greene, a former Cambridge scholar, writes to Christopher Marlowe. Their rivalry was bitter, yet Greene now pleads for help, claiming his life is in danger. Days later, he is discovered dead in a shabby London lodging house. Marlowe, a playwright who also has a knack for detection, decides he owes it to the dead man to learn who took his life and why.

As Marlowe pursues the matter, he begins to suspect Greene was hiding something that someone was willing to kill to protect. The investigation also draws the attention of Sir Robert Cecil, the Queen's spymaster, whose interest in a minor death is hard to explain. Meanwhile, plague is spreading through the city.

The pressure mounts when the stage manager of the Rose Theatre vanishes without a trace, only days before Marlowe's new play is due to open. Juggling the demands of the stage and the search for a killer, Marlowe finds that every clue leads somewhere unexpected.