In a remote English country mansion, modern devotees of the infamous King Richard III, immortally villainized by Shakespeare, have gathered for a grand weekend of role-playing and Ricardian scholarship. Jacqueline Kirby, an attractive American librarian attending the festivities, anticipates only one mystery to be raised: the five-hundred-year-old question of whether Richard truly killed the little princess in the Tower of London.
Jacqueline is amused at the group’s eccentricities—until history begins to repeat itself. A dangerous practical joker recreates famous fifteenth-century murder methods: beheading, poisoning, smothering, and even drowning in a butt of malmsey. As the jokes become more and more macabre, one at last proves fatal.
Racing to untangle the murderous puzzle, Jacqueline puts all her observations together for a dazzling solution that will surprise even the most attentive listener.
Elizabeth Peters (1927–2013) was a New York Times bestselling author whose novels were often set against historical backdrops. She earned a PhD in Egyptology at the University of Chicago. She also wrote bestselling books under the pseudonym Barbara Michaels.
Grace Conlin (1962–1997) was the recording name of Grainne Cassidy, an award-winning actress and acclaimed narrator. She was a member of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC, and won a Helen Hayes Award in 1988 for her role in Woolly Mammoth’s production of Savage in Limbo.