Witch Hammer by M.J.Trow

I first started reading Trow when he was writing the excelent series featuring the Sherlockian character Inspector Lestrade.   These books were remarkable not only for the sense of place and good plots that are essential for a Holmes pastiche but for the dry wit that gave them a style of their own.

The Holmes revival ceased when the EU suddenly extended post mortem copyright to seventy years from fifty and Trow began a series of novels featuring a schoolmaster named Maxwell.   I must admit that I never took to Maxwell.

Trow has now begun a new series featuring the playwright Christopher Marlow who, had he lived to write more, would in my opinion have equalled or even exceeded the reputation of William Shakespeare.

Witch Hammer is the third in this series and finds Marlow, having left Cambridge, determined to make his name as a playwright and to avoid further entanglements with Walsingham and his spy ring.   On the road to London he meets the company of players known as Lord Strange's Men.   Lord Strange, the wealthy son of the Earl of Derby is accompnaying them to a performance at the home of Sir William Clopton near Stratford on Avon.   The Manor of Stratford is owned by Sir Edward Greville who has his eye on the Clopton estate and intends to take them by force on the grounds that Clopton is a Catholic.

Any firther description of the book would become a "spoiler" and so I will simply recommend it to anyone who likes a good historical thriller.