"all's well with this anthology"
All seventeen tales in this enchanting mystery collection
depicts the world is an Elizabethan stage. Well known
genre writers fill the anthology with strong sounds and
fury making for an entertaining time for the spectators,
but several are particularly excellent plays on
Shakespeare's works leading to a quality rarely seen in a
short story collection. The best stories are those that
follow the Tom Stoppard approach (see Rosencrantz &
Guildenstern Are Dead) by employing characters and
allusions from the Bard's works with a twist like placing
protagonists into a legal thriller or changing the focus of
whom is the star. Except perhaps soliloquies of heresy
from English literature professors or a complaint from the
Dark Lady, MUCH ADO ABOUT MURDER is much ado about
entertainment as Will is modernized by a genre crowd that
pays homage to the great one in an all's well anthology. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 1, 2002
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