Interred With Their Bones is a delicious mystery twisting Shakespearean fact with fiction. Author Jennifer Lee Carroll delves into the myth surrounding the man and provides a rich historical background for a tale that is as charged and delightfully cast as many of the plays around which the story unwinds.

Interred is a gripping thriller with many plot twists sure to leave the reader uncertain about whom to trust and what lies ahead. It was refreshing to read a historical mystery that didn’t insult the reader’s intelligence with long, boring diatribes on things the savvy reader probably already knows. At the same time, she didn’t leave her lesser Shakespearian-obsessed fans out in the cold. She weaves her fact with fiction in a way that is both palatable and never boring, all the while holding the reader at the edge of the seat wondering just where the story is leading.

The heroine of the book, Kate Stanley, is a Shakespearean scholar who has been given the immense honor of directing Hamlet at the Globe. The book immediately hooks her reader as Kate’s mentor is found dead in similitude of Hamlet’s father and the historic Globe burns to the ground.

I must admit, I had a hard time putting this one down; I inhaled the entire book in one sitting, and it will be one that I will be keeping on my shelves and not passing along as I do many of my books. It is rare to find a mystery these days that is both thrilling and substantial; it seems that I pick most of my mysteries off the discount shelves and expect to read escapist “fluff” that I never intend to remember or read again. While I certainly did escape into Carroll’s world, there was nothing fluffy about this read. I’m sure I’ll pick it up to enjoy again!