Alert readers will have noticed an uptick in posts on Shakespeare-related mysteries on Bardfilm. I've been working on a possibility for a new course on mystery and detective fiction, and, as is my modus operandi, I've been exploring ways to incorporate Shakespeare into the course.
I'll certainly have James Thurber's "Macbeth Murder Mystery" (for which, q.v.) as a reading early in the course, and I'm thinking of assigning Ngaio Marsh's Death at the Dolphin (for which, q.v.) as the novel representing her work—it may not be her best work, but it's representative, and it's better than Light Thickens (for which, q.v.).
But I also want to branch out and explore some mysteries I haven't read. Bullets for Macbeth is unlikely to make the main list, but it might serve as a choice for a supplementary novel. It has its flaws (the relationship between the two main characters seems generic and forced), but it's quite compelling and, at least for the Shakespeare scholar, it falls into the "genuine page-turner" category.
The first interesting twist is that our two detectives, while falling clearly into the classification "Private Investigators," aren't actually PIs. Gene, our narrator, has an investigator's license, but he's actually working as an assistant to Hilary Quayle, who runs a Public Relations firm but has an affinity for detective work.
The second is that the mystery's plot depends on the scholarly debate over the identity of the Third Murderer (which is also a key point in Thurber's short story). The director has a theory about who Shakespeare would have intended to double that role, but he won't reveal it to anyone until opening night—and the actor isn't called on to play the role until the dress rehearsal. And I'm not giving much of a spoiler to say that that's when the murder occurs.
If you know who the Third Murderer is, you know who the mystery's murder is.
Let me give you a fair bit of Chapter Two so you can see how this starts to play out:
That's more than I normally provide in a post, but it provides a very good sense of how the novel works.
I do recommend the novel. It's relatively short and quite compelling. And the overal solution is quite clever and convincing.
But that doesn't mean that I agree with the director's argument about which character in the play doubles as Third Murderer.
Feel free to join the conversation in the comments—unlike this post, they are not a spoiler-free zone.
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Caution: The comments may contain spoilers about the novel. Read on at your own risk.
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