Time's Fool: A Mystery of Shakespeare [Hardcover]

Leonard Tourney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

The crime's the thing.

William Shakespeare is perhaps the most famous and prolific playwright of all time. Millions have read and seen his works, but few know the man behind the works. For all his fortune and fame, little did he know that the greatest drama of his life would not be performed on stage....
Welcome to Shakespeare's London, a world where the stage captures the hearts of every citizen, where darkness hides dangerous and vengeful creatures. It is in the darkness that Shakespeare finds himself the victim of treachery most foul.

When Shakespeare is contacted by his dark mistress, the former love of his life, he is excited to see her again after so long a separation. Much to his horror, he finds that the years have not been kind; she is now disease-ridden and near death...and she intends to blackmail him, threatening to expose their affair to the world unless he pays her considerable doctor's bills. A sudden fire cuts their meeting short and takes her life.

Torn between grief and anger, Shakespeare learns that the fire was no accident, and that he is being stalked by a person obsessed with bringing his life to ruin. Hope soon comes in the form of a small boy, a would-be actor who happened to witness the arsonist. As quickly as hope appears, it is snuffed out when the boy is violently murdered. Worse yet, Shakespeare is the primary suspect.

Out on bail, Shakespeare finds himself in a desperate race to uncover the truth behind the murder. With his reputation and his life itself on the line, Shakespeare must put down his quill and brace himself for a mystery like none other.

Rich in suspense, period detail, and intrigue, Time's Fool is Leonard Tourney's compelling journey through Shakespeare's world, a world you won't soon forget.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Leonard's literate and entertaining historical, set in 1603 and narrated with brio by the Bard himself, the Dark Lady of the sonnets lures her former lover, prosperous playwright Will Shakespeare, to a reunion tryst. Now wretched with the pox and mired in poverty, she threatens England's literary hero with exposure and disgrace unless he pays her a considerable sum of money. Moments later, a suspicious fire breaks out and she leaps to her death. Bewildered by the whole sordid affair, Will visits royal courts and squalid London byways in an effort to seek out possible enemies who might want to ruin him. Aphorisms from poems and plays are neatly woven into Will's encounters with self-important luminaries like Lord Cecil, the king's "Master High and Mighty," with obsequious servants and even with fishmongers who mug him in a back alley late one night. Murder and intrigue backstage at the Globe implicate poor Will in the death of a young boy suspected of having illicit relations with him. Seeing himself as the "Time's fool" of his sonnet, Will becomes an appealingly human figure, anxious about the future yet filled with a refreshing optimism. Shakespeare fans will delight in this witty caper.
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About the Author

Leonard Tourney teaches Shakespeare at the University of California in Santa Barbara. He lives in Goleta, California.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765303043
• ISBN-13: 978-0765303042
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,372,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fabulous historical mystery, June 5, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Time's Fool: A Mystery of Shakespeare (Hardcover)

In 1603, The Dark Lady of sonnet fame contacts her former lover who immortalized her in his works, the highly successful affluent playwright Will Shakespeare. The great bard is excited with the upcoming rendezvous, but when the meet, he is shocked. The Dark Lady looks wretched instead of fetching and seems nearer death than the lure of life caused by her promiscuous lifestyle as syphilis has taken its toll. She demands money or she will expose Will to his wife and the aristocracy he courts.

However, a fire breaks out at the meeting location. Will and the Dark Lady flee, but her leap from the roof ends in her tragic death. Stunned by the deadly tryst, Will is next accused of killing a protégé with the motive to hide an illicit affair between them. With the help of Sir Robert Cecil, Keeper of the Privy Seal, he stays out of prison so that Will can begin his own inquiries, assisted by his spouse Anne.

Obviously, Shakespeare is the key figure in this solid Elizabethan mystery. He comes across as a fascinating multifaceted figure who cannot resist the lure of his youth, but also deprecatingly calls himself "Time's Fool" because he knows better. The who-done-it is cleverly crafted and the support cast enables the audience to appreciate the Bard even more especially since he comes across as no Sherlock Holmes (adding to the overall delight of the tale). The answer is fans who enjoy a fabulous historical mystery starring a deep enthralling look into the greatest author of all times will response yes to read or not to read that is the question.

Harriet Klausner

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a thoroughly enjoyable read, June 3, 2004

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Time's Fool: A Mystery of Shakespeare (Hardcover)

About 15 years ago, I stumbled onto Leonard Tourney's Matthew and Joan Stock Elizabethan mysteries, and what a find they proved to be! Well written, with a good sense of the period, intriguing and utterly absorbing, I devoured each and every installment in this series in a matter of weeks -- and was really saddened when I discovered that there were no more Matthew and Joan Stock mysteries to enjoy. Now, after an absence of quite a few years, Leonard Tourney has written another historical mystery novel, this time one set in the early Jacobean period and during the early years of James I's reign, and featuring a much older William Shakespeare as protagonist.

Much older and now quite famous, William Shakespeare has reached the pinnacle of his profession. And yet a sense of melancholy seems to dog Shakespeare -- perhaps it has to do with the death of his only son, or the loss of old friends? So that when he receives a letter from an old lover (his dark lady) asking him to come to her, Shakespeare feels compelled to go, in spite of the fact that he and his ex-lover had parted on angry and bitter terms. After so many years of separation, Shakespeare is moved to see how low she has fallen and how ill she has become; but his pity for her soon turns to anger when he realises that she wants to blackmail him about his past indiscretions. In the middle of telling her to publish and be damned, a fire breaks out; Shakespeare manages to escape uninjured, but his ex-lover is not so lucky, and falls to her death. A startling realisation that the fire was deliberately set gives Shakespeare little time for grief, for it now dawns upon him that he may be the target of someone's anger or malice. Frightened, angry and confused, Shakespeare tries to figure out who may be behind all this. The stakes are high, and his unknown enemy ruthless. Will Shakespeare discover who is orchestrating his downfall, or will his impeccable enemy succeed in destroying England's most famous playwright?

"Time's Fool" was a very absorbing read. The pacing was swift and continuous, and the ambiance was just right -- you really got the sense that you were in the middle of Jacobean England, walking the London streets and the country byways with Shakespeare. And the plot was a very intriguing, puzzling and suspenseful one -- I simply couldn't put the book down until I reached the last page. And while some plot developments were no surprises, other were real revelation. I think that most mystery lovers and Shakespeare fans will enjoy this book in spite of the fact that the Shakespeare in this novel is one that few will be familiar with -- quite flawed, quick to justify his actions and slow to accept his mistakes and faults. The fact is, however, that this is a very well written and executed novel, full of colour and ambiance and very compelling. All in all a thoroughly good read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Liked it!, April 19, 2010

By 

Christopher Welcker - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Time's Fool: A Mystery of Shakespeare (Hardcover)

I actually really liked the book for the most part. I have ADD so it's hard for me to sit down and read a book that I am not interested in reading. When I began reading the book, Time's Fool: A Mystery of Shakespeare by Leonard Tourney, to my joyful surprise it wasn't hard for me to want to take the time to read this book because it was captivating. The story starts out very engaging of the reader. It doesn't begin with a lot of details of what's going on at the time you join the drama but you are thrown into the famous play write William Shakespeare's complicated life and left to put the pieces together as they come. The book keeps you guessing with all the twists in the plot that are thrown at you. An example of a twists is the fact that the character Robert Cecil puts so much effort into helping Shakespeare stay out of jail. Another Twist is his wives interest in "helping" find out what happen in the fire that killed his lover from before. All the Twists in the story keep you wondering what is it that actually happen that day of the fire. At times the action does slow down and the twists aren't as suspenseful because the oratory back and forth is a little long, but for the most part it keeps you guessing. Another thing I struggled with was that I would sometimes get lost on what's going on because some parts of the mystery in the novel are left for you to figure out and I didn't notice it those parts. If I had to compare it to a TV show I would compare it to C.I.S. in that each thing that happens makes you wonder how it links back to the novels mystery. I liked this book and am glad I had a chance to read it. The reason I choose this book to read is that I was so impressed with the author when he came and did a reading at my school.

The author seems to be very passionate about what he writes. Leonard Tourney takes the time to really think through his characters in all of his books. He has a wonderful ability to get inside his characters minds and try to imagine what it is that they would do or think. You can tell he gets into what type of voice his characters have and will do what it takes for them to contain the right voice for how he believes that would come across. I myself am a passionate person so when I see others that share the same type of passionate thinking about something I tend to get into what they are saying a lot more so then someone who isn't as passionate. Another thing I was impressed about the author is he doesn't seem to care as much about becoming famous as he does just writing entertaining literature. Many times authors will try to conform to how popular authors do things and Tourney is just trying to write what's entertaining.