The Bad Quarto

by: Jill Paton Walsh

Published by: St. Martins Press--Minotaur

Reviewed by C. L. Rossman

This book in the Imogen Quy Mystery series begins with the falling death of a student at St. Agatha's College in Cambridge, where Imogen Quy works as a nurse. The death is ruled an accident.

Then the plot moves on to the next year and focuses on the seemingly-unrelated problem of a student theatrical company forced to cast a bad actor in the key role of Hamlet--so he'll donate considerable money. There is also trouble between two female roommates.

The Bad Quarto gets its title from a real document, the 1603 First Quarto of Hamlet, published in the Clarendon Press edition of 1965--more of a practice piece for Shakespeare.

The main character Imogen learns that at least one person believes the earlier death was no accident and is determined to root out the villain by Shakespeare's own technique of the play-within-a-play in Hamlet.

I liked the pacing and background depth of this book, a British mystery in the traditional style. The author has written several other Imogen Quy books as well a couple of unrelated mysteries done with Dorothy L. Sayers.

Armchair Interviews says: This Quy series will be well worth your while if you're looking for something more than the usual slam-bang of American mysteries.