"A high-stakes, high-drama mystery...led by a plucky, determined hero I would have followed anywhere...[A] romantic, delightful romp!" —Mackenzi Lee, New York Times bestselling author of A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

A down-on-his-luck actor and an English lord reluctantly team up to solve the murder of Christopher Marlowe in this Shakespearean-era "quippy, heart-wrenching debut...ideal for fans of Mackenzi Lee and F.T. Lukens" (Kirkus Reviews).
London, 1593. Sixteen-year-old Will Hughes is busy working on Shakespeare's stage, stuffing his corsets with straw and pretending to be someone else. Offstage, he's playing a part, too. The son of traitors, Will is desperate to keep his identity secret—or risk being killed in the bloody queen's imperial schemes. All he wants is to lay low until he earns enough coin to return to his family.

But when his mentor, the famous playwright Christopher Marlowe, is murdered...