If you loved Ken Follett's "A Column of Fire," take another journey into 17th-century England with the 5-star reviewed alternate historical fiction novel, "Blood and Ink."

History shows Kit Marlowe died in a tavern brawl in Deptford in 1593, but did he? England is torn apart by religious metamorphosis and espionage. The stages of England and bright intellectual boys are used to bolster Queen Elizabeth I's reign and propagate the rising Protestant faith. At the age of eight, Christopher Marlowe, the muse's darling, is sucked into the labyrinth of secret spy rings, blood, murder, and betrayal, while his own ambition to become England's favorite playwright drifts further from his grasp. As Christopher grows to manhood, he sinks further into the darkness, and a chance meeting with an unknown actor from Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare, sets him on a path of destiny - a fate of forced exile and the revelation that the real enemy is not an assassin of Rome, but a man who stared into his eyes and smiled. One he did not expect... Read the editorial review by the Historical Novel Society here: https: //historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/blood-and-ink/

"The dialogue is as rich as a Shakespeare sonnet, the darker moments, as terrible as the Massacre of Paris, and the lighter moments as amusing as anything that William wrote. I adored the interpretation of both Marlowe and Shakespeare. So although this is very much Kit's story, there would not have been a story without William's running along side it.

This book asks many questions and D. K. Marley has tried to give plausible answers. And although we will never know if Kit really did die in that dreadful fight in a house in Deptford, or if William really did pen the worlds most beloved plays, this story has something for anyone who is interested in these poets and the world in which they lived in.

If you were to read only one book this year, then let it be this one." - 2018 Bronze Winner for Book of the Year from The Coffee Pot Book Club, Mary Anne Yarde