The Laughing Hangman (Missing Mystery, #50)

Rating:
Summary: Murder in Elizabethan England
Review: Lord Westfield's Men are once again hip deep in a series of murders, Elizabethan style, in The Laughing Hangman by Edward Marston. Nicholas Bracewell, man for all seasons, bookholder and mediator for the actors, and detective when anything threatens them, is faced with one of his thorniest mysteries. The players have agreed to perform a play by a notorious and drunken playwright, Jonas Applegarth. At the same time Nicholas has been asked to rescue a young boy whose father says has been impressed against his will into the Chapel Children, a theater group connected with the Chapel Royal. While trying to find out what is credible, Bracewell discovers the body of the Master of the Chapel hanging above the stage at Blackfriars. As he approaches the body he hears a mocking eerie laughter before a door slams. This initiates an intriguing search for the laughing hangman, another death complete with laughter and yet another before the murderer is apprehended. Marston describes an interesting, believable world in Elizabethan London. The writ of the law does not travel far from the main streets and people often take matters into their own hands to defend themselves or attack their enemies. The theater is really outside the law, allowed to exist on sufferance. This, I believe, makes it easier for Nicholas to understand the mind of a person who could act outside the law. In a sense, it is all theater and an understanding of what happens on stage is prerequisite to solving the mystery. The theater world is riveting to tour, to trace the origins of much of our entertainment today. I keep hoping that Shakespeare will wander in to watch one of Lord Westfall's Men's offerings. Maybe he is in disguise. Marston provides us with interesting three-dimensional characters for the most part. Even the minor roles have meat to them. The story is well-told and, while I figured out the murderer several pages before the end, I was not at all sure of the motivation. And the motivation is something that could have caused a murder only in Elizabethan England. You cannot do much better than to pay a visit to Nicholas Bracewell in Elizabethan London