Alms for Oblivion

London, 1602. Nick Revill helps his boyhood friend Peter Agate obtain a place with the Chamberlain’s Men as the company prepares a private performance of Troilus and Cressida for the lawyers of Middle Temple. Peter is soon stabbed to death in Nick’s lodgings, and the evidence makes Nick appear responsible.

Further deaths deepen the connection between the acting companies, an aristocratic brother and sister and a former player who claims to have seen the Devil on stage. To avoid arrest, Nick must reconstruct Peter’s movements and determine why someone is using friendship, theatrical rivalry and the reputation of the new play to direct suspicion towards him.