I'm having a hard time describing the nature of this novel. Is it a romp? Is it an adventure or is it a mystery? One thing is certain, the author is good at placing us in the time period and for a while having us living alongside characters from Elizabethan England.

The story revolves around a theater troupe who are enticed to take on Davy, the son of a wealthy man. There is a condition however, it needs to be performed at a manor outside of London instead of at the heart of the city where the company usually plays. From the moment the theater company takes on Davy things start to go wrong in mysterious ways and we're left to wonder what mysterious forces are at work.

Of course this is a mystery and in the end everything is explained away without the use of supernatural forces. Unfortunately the author was in such a strange hurry to wrap up the book that he didn't explain the cause of some of the early completely inexplicable events.

Reading this novel puts you smack in Elizabethan times, except that the author uses some tropes a little bit too much. About a quarter in I got really tired of the mentioning of chamber pots. ( )