#BlogTour #BookReview Twelve Nights by Penny Ingham

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Twelve Nights Full Tour BannerWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Twelve Nights by Penny Ingham. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Joanne at Pickled Thoughts and Pinot, Jasmine at Jazzy Book Reviews and Jo at Over The Rainbow Book Blog.

WinThere’s also a (UK only) giveaway with a chance to win a paperback copy of Twelve Nights. Enter via Rafflecopter here. 

Terms and Conditions:

  1. Open to entrants aged 18 or over.
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  3. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.
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Twelve NightsAbout the Book

The Theatre, London 1592. When a player is murdered, suspicion falls on the wardrobe mistress, Magdalen Bisset, because everyone knows poison is a woman’s weapon. The scandal-pamphlets vilify her. The coroner is convinced of her guilt.

Magdalen is innocent, although few are willing to help her prove it. Her much-loved grandmother is too old and sick. Will Shakespeare is benignly detached and her friend Christopher Marlowe is wholly unreliable. Only one man offers his assistance, but dare she trust him when nothing about him rings true?

With just two weeks until the inquest, Magdalen ignores anonymous threats to ‘leave it be’ and delves into the dangerous underworld of a city seething with religious and racial tension. As time runs out, she must risk everything in her search for the true killer – for all other roads lead to the gallows.

Format: Paperback (368 pages) Publisher: Nerthus
Publication date: 1st June 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find Twelve Nights on Goodreads

Purchase links
Amazon UK
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My Review

The story unfolds at a pace that means there’s plenty of time to immerse yourself in the sights and smells of Elizabethan London and its theatres. The latter was an aspect of the book I really enjoyed and which I thought the author brought brilliantly to life, from the audience of one-penny groundlings and ‘bum-cushions’ (those who could afford seats) to the behind-the-scenes preparation for performances involving, amongst other things, a stuffed dog and Richard III’s hump. The story takes the reader to the grimy streets and alleyways of London, the squalor of Bridewell and the rumbustious goings on at the Mermaid tavern, as well as the homes of the nobility attired in their outrageously opulent garb. Amongst the latter there are goings-on that would definitely not meet with the approval of Puritans.

Magdalen makes a plucky and resourceful heroine – and she needs to be. Not only has she been accused of a murder she did not commit but she finds herself caught up in the political intrigue and religious turmoil of the period. Forced to turn detective in order to save her own skin, her investigation throws up a plethora of suspects and possible motives including revenge, jealousy, blackmail, corruption and bigotry. There’s a neat summary of the main suspects and why they might have committed the crime towards the end of the book. Alongside all this Magdalen has to repel the unwanted advances of her employer (also her landlord) and support herself and her ailing grandmother who is slowly losing her grip on reality, a dangerous situation when one loose word could spell disaster. It’s not surprising Magdalen feels very alone and vulnerable. ‘Once, the Theatre had been her sanctuary from the troubles of the world, and then death had crept inside and it no longer felt a safe haven.’ 

Woven into the story of Magdalen’s quest to clear her name are real historical figures including the playwrights William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd – all competing for noble patronage and the demands of bloodthirsty theatregoers – and actor and theatre owner, Richard Burbage. And of course no novel set in the Elizabethan period would be complete without a reference to one of the Cecil family.

The book ends with some surprising revelations. Not just the identity of the person responsible for the murder but about Magdalen herself, leaving plenty of possible storylines to be explored in future books.

In three words: Atmospheric, intriguing, lively

Try something similar: A Murderous Affair by Jonathan Digby

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Twelve Nights Author IMG_5152About the Author

Penny writes: I was born and raised in Yorkshire where my father inspired my love of history from an early age. He is a born story teller and would take us to the top of Iron Age hill forts, often as dusk was falling, and regale us with stirring tales of battles lost and won. Not surprisingly, I went on to study Classics at university, and still love spending my summers on archaeological digs. For me, there is nothing more thrilling than finding an artefact that has not seen the light of day for thousands of years. I find so much inspiration for my novels from archaeology.

I have had a variety of jobs over the years, including working for the British Forces newspaper in Germany, and at the BBC. When our family was little, the only available space for me to write was a small walk-in wardrobe. The children used to say, ‘Oh, Mum’s in the cupboard again’.

I have written four historical novels: The King’s Daughter explores the story of Aethelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians. The Saxon Wolves and The Saxon Plague are both set in fifth century AD, a time of enormous upheaval and uncertainty in Britain as the Romans departed and the Saxon era began. My latest is something a bit different. Twelve Nights is a crime thriller set in sixteenth century London, and features William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.

I now live with my husband in the Hampshire countryside. Like many others during the pandemic, we decided to try growing our own fruit and vegetables – with mixed results! We can only get better!

Connect with Penny
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Twelve Nights

#WWWWednesday – 13th July 2022

whatcathyreadnext5 Comments

WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

The Cleaner of ChartresThe Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers (Penguin)

There is something special about the ancient cathedral of Chartres, with its mismatched spires, astonishing stained glass and strange labyrinth. And there is something special too about Agnès Morel, the mysterious woman who is to be found cleaning it each morning.

No one quite knows where she came from – not the diffident Abbé Paul, who discovered her one morning twenty years ago, sleeping in the north porch; nor lonely Professor Jones, whose chaotic existence she helps to organise; nor Philippe Nevers, whose neurotic sister and newborn child she cares for; nor even the irreverent young restorer, Alain Fleury, who works alongside her each day and whose attention she catches with her tawny eyes, her colourful clothes and elusive manner. And yet everyone she encounters would surely agree that she is subtly transforming their lives, even if they couldn’t quite say how.

But with a chance meeting in the cathedral one day, the spectre of Agnès’ past returns, provoking malicious rumours from the prejudiced Madame Beck and her gossipy companion Madame Picot. As the hearsay grows uglier, Agnès is forced to confront her history, and the mystery of her origins finally unfolds. #20BooksofSummer2022

Lucky JackLucky Jack by S. Bavey (josephtailor)

“One of the perils of being a sniper during the First World War was the likelihood of a grenade going off right next to you and burying you alive”.

Meet Jack Rogers. Born in 1894, he once locked eyes with Queen Victoria and was one of the first travellers on London’s ‘Tube’. An early car owner, he had many escapades on his days out to Brighton, including a time when his brakes failed and he had to drive through central London without them!

His skills as an entertainer earned him popularity throughout his life, and kept him out of the deadly mines while a prisoner during the First World War. At the tender age of 103 Jack earned the title of ‘The World’s Oldest Columnist’ as he began dictating his life’s exploits to a reporter from the local newspaper.

LearwifeLearwife by J. R. Thorp (Canongate)

“I am the queen of two crowns, banished fifteen years, the famed and gilded woman, bad-luck baleful girl, mother of three small animals, now gone. I am fifty-five years old. I am Lear’s wife. I am here.”

Word has come. Care-bent King Lear is dead, driven mad and betrayed. His three daughters too, broken in battle. But someone has survived: Lear’s queen. Exiled to a nunnery years ago, written out of history, her name forgotten. Now she can tell her story.

Though her grief and rage may threaten to crack the earth open, she knows she must seek answers. Why was she sent away in shame and disgrace? What has happened to Kent, her oldest friend and ally? And what will become of her now, in this place of women? To find peace she must reckon with her past and make a terrible choice – one upon which her destiny, and that of the entire abbey, rests.

Recently finished

Katastrophe by Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus)

The White Hare by Jane Johnson (Head of Zeus)

Twelve Nights by Penny Ingham (Nerthus)

 

What Cathy (will) Read Next

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Who is Solomon Creed? A dangerous psychiatric patient, who has escaped from a high-security facility in America, or an innocent amnesiac trying to establish his true identity?

His search for the truth about himself takes Solomon to the beautiful southern French town of Cordes. But his arrival coincides with the brutal murder of an elderly French tailor, the words ‘Finishing what was begun’ daubed in blood on the walls.

Instinctively, Solomon knows he must help the tailor’s granddaughter and great grandson escape, and together they go on the run. Their flight, though, will set in motion a terrible sequence of events, leading to the exposure of a far-reaching conspiracy with its origins in the Holocaust but with terrible consequences for modern-day Europe. And what will it mean for Solomon himself?  #20BooksofSummer2022