It takes the landlord and the chamberlain working in furious tandem to lug the Inn-in-the-Wall’s only strongbox up to Frizer and Marlowe’s room. At the door they drop their load and proceed to shove it across the floor to the window, a piece of metal screeching at the base all the way. At last, the box comes to rest: an iron-clad, age-blackened, toadish thing, armoured in the scraps of perhaps a dozen predecessors.
Panting, the landlord hands Marlowe a heavy-looking key. ‘You lose it, you pay,’ is all he manages to say.
As soon as they are gone, Marlowe begins emptying papers out of his bag and stacking them inside the box, taking his time as always, flipping through pages he has no doubt thumbed a thousand times before. Meanwhile, Frizer sits upon the sagging cot, holding a letter which Marlowe had dropped onto the floor beside his head first thing this morning. The paperbolt with which it is sealed is heartbreakingly amateurish, as if Marlowe had grown bored or frustrated halfway through making it.
‘This Baines fellow,’ Frizer says. ‘Will I have to talk to him?’
‘No!’ Marlowe says, barely glancing up from a bound manuscript. ‘He may try to pull ye aside, but do not let him. Meet with him in a public place, hand him the message and be gone.’
‘I thought you said there was no danger.’
‘To you, no. Perfectly safe.’
Christopher Marlowe and Ingram Frizer were thrown together during what would end up being Marlowe’s last days.
Official synopsis:
Christopher Marlowe: playwright, poet, lover. In the plague-stricken streets of Elizabethan England, Kit flirts with danger, leaving a trail of enemies and old flames in his wake. His plays are a roaring success; he seems destined for greatness.
But in the spring of 1593, the queen's eyes are everywhere and the air is laced with paranoia. Marlowe receives an unwelcome visit from his one-time mentor, Richard Baines, a man who knows all of Marlowe’s secrets and is hell-bent on his destruction.
When Marlowe is arrested on charges of treason, heresy, and sodomy—all of which are punishable by death—he is released on bail with the help of Sir Thomas Walsingham. Kit presumes Walsingham to be his friend; in fact, the spymaster has hired an assassin to take care of Kit, fearing that his own sins may come to light.
Now, with the queen's spies and the vengeful Baines closing in on the playwright, Marlowe's last friend in the world is Ingram Frizer, a total stranger who is obsessed with Kit's plays, and who will, within ten days' time, first become Marlowe's lover—and then his killer. Richly atmospheric, emotionally devastating, and heartrendingly imagined, Lightborne is a masterful reimagining of the last days of one of England's most famous literary figures.
Christopher Marlowe was charged with treason, heresy, and sodomy - any one of which could cost him his life. But many other men were living the same lifestyle with little to no consequences. It seemed to come down to politics, and the law came for many men Marlowe associated with, eventually. The author shows in a sincere way how the gradual convictions of one after another of those he knew took a little more of Marlowe’s heart and soul each time.
While under house arrest, Marlowe trusts an old contact, now the spymaster, to be doing what’s best for him. A man he never spent time with before, Ingram Frizer, is assigned to spend all his time monitoring Marlowe to make sure he doesn’t run. Emotions are high, and no ones’ intentions seem to be as they are stated. How much help are those in Marlowe’s circle lending him or others at risk, or are they all just defending their own interests?
Overall, the book clearly illustrated Marlowe’s increasing panic and paranoia, alongside the comfort and building relationship between him and Frizer. The story earned 3 out of 5 stars and would be a great read for those who enjoy realistic sounding stories of Marlowe, Shakespeare, and their contemporaries.
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Becki Bayley is a wife, mother, and stereotypical Gen-X-er. Find her posts about life and other books on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.
GIVEAWAY:
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