Book excerpt: The play’s the thing . . . To the outside world, Tom Pryne is an orphan traveling Elizabethan England with his uncle’s theater troupe. In actuality, “Tom” is Viola, in disguise because her parents’ Catholic sympathies have put them at odds with the Crown and forced them into hiding. When the troupe arrives in the sleepy little town of Stratford-on-Avon, Viola’s uncle is arrested for murder, and she joins forces with an irksome local boy, named Will Shakespeare, with an active imagination, a penchant for trouble, and a smart turn of phrase, to uncover the real culprit. A perfect blend of humor, drama, and adventure and a rich evocation of 16th-century England inform this fresh and original historical mystery that introduces an appealing pair of amateur sleuths.