A Tip for the Hangman by Allison Epstein
Length: 374 Pages
Genres: Historical Fiction, LGBTQ, Mystery Thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Trigger Warnings in this book for Blood, Gore, Violence and Homophobia
Kit Marlowe has always been a figure that has played around my peripheral--I knew he was an Elizabethan poet and playwright, overshadowed by contemporary Will Shakespeare (though at the time he was what we would now call quite the celebrity), and that he was most likely gay. But when I spotted this beautiful cover I was immediately intrigued, even more so once I found out it was about Kit's supposed spying for the Crown. In all honestly, I was expecting this book to be on the dry side and was really pleasantly surprised! It's all the fun and danger of Jason Bourne wrapped up in the glitter and dirt of 1500s England.
Christopher Marlowe, called Kit, is the poor son of a shoemaker with a wit and talent far beyond his meager beginnings. At Cambridge, he finds himself shunned by the other students, who are almost exclusively rich lordlings. Out of his few friends, his closest is Tom Watson. Kit wishes they were even closer. However, the politics and favoritism of school is soon left behind when Kit is approached by Sir Francis Walsingham--principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth and spymaster. He has seen potential in Kit, and with that potential comes money. What Kit doesn't realize is that he will lose something in exchange for all that he gains--his soul.
This is a spy tale with heart. Kit is young and brash and charming, with a quick tongue and even quicker brain. I felt the excitement when he broke codes or narrowly avoided discovery, and all the heartbreak of his love for Tom, who is pulled into the Crown's schemes because of Kit. For lovers of the period, you will find many familiar faces within these pages, far beyond Shakespeare and Walsingham--there is Mary, Queen of Scots (Kit's first mark), actor Edward Alleyn, famous spy Robert Poley, and Sir Robert Cecil, too.
Please check this one out if you're interested in the time period, but be sure to bring your tissues! Kit is as wonderful and wicked as he was in real life and you'll be sore to lose him.
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