The short story "Dead in Depford" is, for me, doubly tangential: It's tangentially connected to Shakespeare, and it's tangentially connected to mystery and detective fiction.
The plot involves a group—or club, really—of retired police officers who gather to talk about all sorts of things. In this instance, they're discussing the death of Christopher Marlowe in 1593. Our main character claims to have solved the mystery of his murder.
Therein lie both the tangents. Marlowe was a contemporary of Shakespeare (who is dismissively mentioned on page 135); that's the first. The second is that the mystery of Marlowe's death isn't addressed in any particularly definitive "detective story" manner. The "solution" isn't terribly interesting, nor is it genuinely based in any sort of detection from the facts of the case.
Indeed, it all comes down to one simple—and not terribly convincing or compelling—idea about Marlowe's death. Note: It isn't a conspiracy-theory solution. That's all.
The story attempt to overcome this defect by breaking up what could be one paragraph with interruptions and reactions from the other retired police officers. That's amusing, but it doesn't manage to elevate the story significantly.
Here are a few pages to give you an idea:
Although I do like the individual characterization worked in throughout, there's just not much here.
But feel free to discuss this in the comments!
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