A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein

There “Monsieur Sauvage,” as he is known, learns French, literature, and sword fighting, becoming an attendant to the French King Henri II and a particular favorite of his queen, the formidable Catherine de’ Medici. When he is kidnapped off the beach near his home, he finds himself delivered by a slave broker into the dangerous and glamorous world of France’s royal court. He is mercilessly ridiculed for the hair covering his body from head to toe. This book broke my heart and put it back together again.'-Allison Epstein, author of A Tip for the HangmanĪ mesmerizing novel set in the French royal court of Catherine de’ Medici during the Renaissance, which recreates the touching and surprising true story behind the Beauty and the Beast legend, from the acclaimed author of The Clergyman’s Wife and The Heiress.ġ547: Pedro Gonzales, a young boy living on the island of Tenerife, understands that he is different from the other children in his village. Molly Greeley has pulled off a piece of magic to tell a dazzling love story about the outcast's ache to be cared for and belong. This debut novel, as enjoyable as it is, gives hope that Epstein’s next outing will be even better.'Enchanting. The tale would have benefited from a higher development of Kit’s relationship with his lover, Tom, but the swashbuckling adventure and the fast-paced plotting more than make up for any of its deficiencies. The counterfeiters, inexplicably excluding Marlowe, are arrested by Protestant Englanders.Ī Tip for the Hangman is an enjoyable, somewhat over-the-top, tale that takes Marlowe’s historical life and melds it nicely with rumor and conspiracy most notably the circumstances of Marlowe’s mysterious and untimely death, and where his allegiance actually was. Kit then travels to the Netherlands to assist in a Catholic plot to counterfeit coinage. Later, Kit is caught spying by the Catholics, and he saves himself from a cruel death by claiming he is a double agent spying for the Catholics. Kit, as Marlowe is called, uncovers the Babington Plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, which leads to Mary’s execution.

Mary’s ménage is a hotbed of Catholic conspiracies.

Marlowe, who finds little time to write in this dashing tale, is on assignment from Queen Elizabeth I to infiltrate and spy in Mary, Queen of Scots’ household.

A Tip for the Hangman, by first-time novelist Allison Epstein, is an enticing and fun mystery featuring Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe.

A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein