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A Tip for the Hangman
- A Novel
- Narrated by: James Meunier
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
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A Tip for the Hangman
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Publisher's Summary
An Elizabethan espionage thriller in which playwright Christopher Marlowe spies on Mary, Queen of Scots while navigating the perils of politics, theater, romance - and murder.
England, 1585. In Kit Marlowe's last year at Cambridge, he is approached by Queen Elizabeth's spymaster offering an unorthodox career opportunity: going undercover to intercept a Catholic plot to put Mary, Queen of Scots on Elizabeth's throne. Spying on Queen Mary turns out to be more than Kit bargained for, but his salary allows him to mount his first play, and over the following years he becomes the toast of London's raucous theater scene. But when Kit finds himself reluctantly drawn back into the world of espionage and treason, he realizes everything he's worked so hard to attain - including the trust of the man he loves - could vanish in an instant.
Pairing modern language with period detail, Allison Epstein brings Elizabeth's lavish court, Marlowe's colorful theater troupe, and the squalor of sixteenth-century London to vivid, teeming life. At the center of the action is Kit himself - an irrepressible, irreverent force of nature.
What the critics say
“Epstein presents Marlowe as supremely capable, something of a trickster, a consummate liar, a fiendish lover - and someone capable of murder.... The suspense is palpable, as is the sense of doom, as Marlowe finds himself in thrall to a devil’s bargain.” (The New York Times Book Review)
"Allison Epstein pens a vivid, unforgettable hero in Kit Marlowe, Elizabethan playwright-turned-spy always sprinting one step ahead of disaster and talking a blue streak as he does so. Recruited by Elizabeth I's spymaster to infiltrate the cabal of Mary Queen of Scots, Kit finds his conscience tested to the limit even as his heart yearns for an unattainable beloved. A Tip for the Hangman is simultaneously moving, unsettling, hilarious, and tragic - a debut that will linger long after the last page is turned." (Kate Quinn, New York Times best-selling author of The Alice Network)
"[Epstein's] fizzy debut is a Tudor espionage tale, set among spies close to Mary, Queen of Scots. One of them is Christopher Marlowe, whose spy work bankrolls a rather promising theater career. It’s more of a clever Netflix binge than a Hilary Mantel historical masterpiece - and that’s perfectly fine." (The Chicago Tribune, 25 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2021)