Rating: 
Summary: PI parlays experience into excellent thriller!
Review: When I heard the author on the radio talking about her real-life experiences as a PI, her ex-CIA boss, and U.S. attorney father, I decided to give this book a try. I like authenticity, and too many thrillers are painfully over the top...you know, so implausible you roll your eyes. But this one, wow! I loved it. It's got a very authentic, informative feel, but is also inventive, fresh and exciting. Kept me up till dawn!The Marlowe chapters come to life so vividly. Really enjoyed Marlowe's banter with Tom Walsingham and the tavern whore, as well as the way he was inspired to start writing "Hero and Leander." And learning so much about the Elizabethan underworld--spies and spymasters, con men, codes, ciphers, etc was fascinating. Very cool how the present day chapters paralleled those set in the past--you get to see Marlowe and Kate get their espionage assignments one after the other, begin them, get in danger, etc, in alternating chapters. And I loved Kate, found her more likable and believable than other mystery/spy heroines I've come across, probably because she's modeled so closely on the author... Whose ex-CIA boss endorsed the book so glowingly that I trust the PI know-how, international intrigue, and intelligence aspects, which made the whole reading experience much more fun for me. Lastly, I was thrilled that the endings to both storylines were unpredictable, clever and witty--for me, totally satisfying. Which is so rare in this genre. And when you're done, definitely stick around for the author's note. It tells you how most events from the sixteenth-century chapters are based on historical evidence, and explains something really interesting about the structure of the novel.
| 
