BY ANY OTHER NAME

An Elizabethan actor witnesses the murder of Christopher Marlowe and accidentally becomes the queen’s spymaster in this Achillean historical fiction.

In 1593 London, Will Hughes scrapes together a life as a teenage actor at the Rose Theatre under the mentorship of Christopher Marlowe. Kidnapped from his anti-monarchist family at a young age, Will escaped indentured servitude and is now determined to get back to them. So when handsome young nobleman Lord James Bloomsbury offers him an exorbitant sum to stage an illicit play, Will is sure he’s found his ticket home. But when Will sees Marlowe get stabbed through the eye and finds a phial of poison that may be meant for the queen, their plans are derailed. James convinces Will to team up with him to solve the murder and earn the queen’s favor—something that’s vitally important to James but that Will sees as risky. As their investigation grows, the two are pulled into an increasingly tangled web that includes spies, noblemen, the infamous pirate queen Gráinne Ní Mháille, and Queen Elizabeth I herself, not to mention complicated feelings for each other. Will and James’ romantic arc is captivating, and Will’s first-person narration is propulsive. The existence of Black people in Elizabethan England is acknowledged through the presence of Will’s roommate Inigo. A well-balanced, well-researched dramedy, Cotter’s quippy, heart-wrenching debut is ideal for fans of Mackenzi Lee and F.T. Lukens.

To read or not to read? There’s really no question: pick this one up.