Where Kit Outsmarts Everyone. For Awhile.

A Tip for the Hangman: A Novel by Allison Epstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very well written book, with excellent research, a well-developed Elizabethan setting, memorable characters, and great pacing.

Yes, Christopher Marlowe probably was a spy. This is a fictional account of that, but it feels like it could be true. (The author lists in the back the ways she diverged from literal truth. I was not concerned.) It's gritty and tough, but there's also tenderness and genuine human emotion. Kit is a great character, and I loved rooting for him, but he didn't do himself any favors at times... He's super smart, a brilliant writer but also an amazing mind, capable of deciphering nearly unbreakable codes, and learns how to keep his secret life and his public life separate. He's a bit of a hothead, willing to antagonize people who he shouldn't, and I only wish he had been a little wiser. Still, it feels that the outcome (both in real life and in the novel) was in a way inevitable. Once the state sees potential in a spy, there's no way he could be free to just live his life. And no way could he ever be truly safe.

I had never looked at his history before, and I was surprised to see that he was from a working class family, attending Cambridge on a scholarship. That's pretty cool. I wonder if it explains the tone of his plays--though the author attributes that to his experience with religion and some other things. Now I want to reread them, see if I can see the poor man's son in his language.

This novel works as a straightforward historical spy novel, but the prose is special. I seldom notice language, but the writing here--the figurative language, sophisticate musings, and prose at the sentence level--are all first class. I enjoyed it a lot and highly recommend it.

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