Mask of Night

Name: Mask of Night
Rating: 4.01 (111 reviews)

by Philip Gooden Book 5 in the Nick Revill series.

First published 2004

Amazon

3.9(111)

London and Oxford, 1603. Plague has closed the public theatres, so the Chamberlain’s Men accept a private commission to perform Romeo and Juliet at an Oxford inn. Their patron, physician Hugh Fern, may be trying to reconcile two hostile families through a marriage, or merely to secure a place for himself in the production.

Fern is found dead in a locked room during the performance, and other inexplicable deaths follow as cowled figures patrol the streets. Nick Revill investigates a town anxious about infection, where medical authority, family honour and theatrical illusion make it difficult to tell natural death from a carefully staged murder.