Horowitz, Hawthorne & Hamlet

This week's Shakespeare Saturday called an audible.  Originally, it was to be a review of the Stratford Festival's film of The Tempest.  Although I knew going in that Prospero was acted by a female, I fired it up and settled in.  The titular cataclysm played well on stage.  The action moved to the island, with Prospero and Miranda in discussion.  It was when the former recited the line as "thy no greater mother" that I pulled the plug.  It was too nice a day to deal with such misdeeds.  Instead, I went with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

So what to post?  I decided to recount a recent and very unexpected appearance of Hamlet.  The apartment complex where I live has a bookshelf outside of the rental office.  It's an impromptu library sort of thing--leave a book, take a book.  In these days when actual libraries are awaiting whichever phase allows them to reopen at a distance, this bookshelf is a welcome sight.  Granted, many of the books are pulpy fiction and romance offerings, and my personal "to read" shelf is still considerably full.

In any event, I took a gander while visiting the office and noticed a title that looked promising:  The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz.  The author was familiar; I had read (and enjoyed) Forever And A Day, his prequel to Ian Fleming's James Bond series.  The book itself stood out--a first edition hardcover among mass market paperbacks.  The dust jacket blurb made the story sound interesting.  The price of the book sealed the deal.  I grabbed it; little did I know what awaited me.

The story itself is excellent and creative:  the real-life author injecting himself into a fictional detective story murder mystery.  It was fun seeing the intersection of the real world London of Anthony Horowitz and the fictional London of Detective Daniel Hawthorne.  Additionally, there were plenty of eerie parallels to my own interests.  I expected a reference or two to James Bond, given the author's other works.  Those appeared, in the guise of discussions of titles and settings.  There were mentions of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, much appreciated by a reader who has been through that author's entire canon.  There was even an extended discussion of Herge's Tintin, revolving around a film version in which Horowitz was involved as a screenwriter.  Before public libraries took a pause, I had been working my way through the Tintin series.  The mentions here elicited a bit of literary nostalgia.

What is the relevance to this blog, however?  It did not take long.  On page 2, the following quotation appeared:  "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions."  Hmmm.  I know that one.  Interesting coincidence; there was no mention of Hamlet anywhere in the dust jacket.  Just a one-off from an English author, methought.  It was not an isolated incident, though.  Later there was a description of a fountain with the quotation "To sleep, perchance to dream."  This game of "Find the Allusion" was proceeding nicely.

When the plot shifted to stories of a drama school production of Hamlet, I could not help but smile (and laugh and think about a future blog post).  The description of the show--good heavens!

"We did it in the round with no set and very few props.  We used a lot of masks...influenced by Noh theatre...[The] fight scene in Act 5...was done with fans, not with swords."

I've seen some clunkers on stage (and on film), but that one would certainly have been in the top five!

The Word Is Murder turned out to be a wonderful surprise!  It was an engrossing read, and the mystery was handled cleverly and fairly.  When I reached the end, I had to flip back to review clues that I had missed but were really there.  If only I had been as astute as Detective Hawthorne!  To the general mystery fan--highly recommended.  To the Hamlet fan--a definite!  I will be giving the apartment complex bookshelf another look on my next trip.