Rating: 
Summary: great fireside reading
Review: This mystery's jester-narrator is a great character, combining intelligence and a (sometimes wicked) sense of humor.Author Alan Gordon deserves special applause for his fabulous idea -- returning to the setting and people of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, adding a "secret agent" in jester's garb, and mixing in an excellent plot. Get your hot chocolate, put on your slippers, and sit by the fireside to enjoy this winter read! I hope there is a sequel underway...
Rating: 
Summary: A fun read for any historical mystery buff.
Review: _Thirteenth Night_ was a great, fun mystery read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's not a detective mystery in the purest sense, since the emphasis is not on clues and investigations but on character. In fact, the book's strongest point is its development of the sometimes one-dimensional characters of _Twelfth Night_ into believeable people. I did not always agree with Gordon's view of the characters; still, I enjoyed what he did with them.The narrator Theophilus does not let us in on all his reasoning, and knowledge until the very end, when he lets the characters in on it as well. Without this knowledge, no reader could solve the mystery before Theophilus does. I find the withholding of information annoying, but it is a typical and traditional technique of the mystery genre (Conan Doyle does it). Still, this is not the book for readers who like to match their wits against those of fictional detectives. I still recommend the book for an interesting and entertaining read.
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