The Assassin of Verona by Benet Brandreth, Book Review
We know so little of the life of William Shakespeare. Some have even questioned his very existence. Where did he get his ideas from for say, The Merchant of Venice or The Two Gentlemen of Verona or even Romeo and Juliet? As far as we know, Shakespeare never left the country. But what if he had? What if a young William had travelled to Italy in the company of two fellow Englishmen as a sort of assistant spy? What if he had stayed in Venice and Verona, associated with locals, perhaps even fallen in love with a local beauty, while gathering intelligence for his queen? What if he had to survive vicious attacks, escape plots on his life and evade the spies of a Pope determined to destroy the English heretic queen? Now, that would be an exciting read, wouldn’t it? Benet Brandreth did just that in his first two William Shakespeare thrillers. The Assassin of Verona follows on from The Spy of Venice . A young William Shakespeare (the year is 1585) is disguised as the steward of the...