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Falstaff’s Murder: A Mystery of Shakespeare By Leonard Tourney
Spoiler:
William Shakespeare, only 19 years old but already with a wife and child, leaves Stratford-upon-Avon to pursue a career in theatre in London.
But on the journey he is robbed and kidnapped by a group of highwaymen, led by the aged, round-bellied womaniser John Falstaff.
When Shakespeare wakes up in Oldcastle Hold, Oxfordshire, without his possessions – including his half-finished Comedy of Errors¬ – the lord of the house Falstaff denies any wrongdoing.
Shakespeare becomes a prisoner to Falstaff and is asked to write to write to his father for ransom before he can be released.
However, Shakespeare becomes a favourite of the benign Falstaff, and is more concerned with turning down the unwanted advances of the buxom Mercy Roundy than fleeing the household.
But things take a darker turn when Shakespeare is asked to work as gardener to the house, and he discovers the rotting corpse of his predecessor who tried to make an escape.
A group of actors come to Oldcastle Hold and Shakespeare makes his acting debut as a youth who murders his lover’s father, played by Falstaff.
But life comes to imitate art in the middle of the play when Falstaff is discovered with his throat cut – by the very gardening tool Shakespeare was using.
Framed by the murder and sentenced to hang, Shakespeare knows his only chance of survival is to escape the mad house...
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