The Book Whisperer

What Goodreads says: “A secret Royal birth in the past. The horrific murder of the heir to the throne in modern day London. A missing national treasure. A secret society bent on revenge. Rivalry between the police and the army. A love story born out of chaos.  And in the middle of it all, a secret between William Shakespeare and the Royal Family that holds it together…
Shakespeare’s Truth is the controversial and talked about new thriller from new writer Rex Richards. It’s easy and engaging reading that will make you think!”

What I thought: I have mixed feelings about this book so I have decided to split them into the good, the bad and the ugly:

The Good:  On the one hand it was page-turning read; it was  thought-provoking and made me question a lot of things that I thought I knew. It had me reaching for the internet on several occasions as I was eager to find more about what I thought was fact – I love it when a book makes you think and question like that. It was a quick and pacey read and wasn’t bogged down with unecessary details. I also liked the fact that the subject matter is controversial. I was shocked within the first few pages – Queen Elizabeth I gave birth in secret, then 2 pages later in the present day Prince William is murdered. Normally, I wouldn’t have thought that I would want to read something with this as the backdrop to a story, but for some reason I felt compelled to read on.

The Bad: The book was at times amateurish and even farcical. The characters weren’t well-developed or rounded enough for me, but this could be forgiven as the plot was what made the book not the characters. However, there were certain points in the book that felt very cheesey (the last chapter being one of them). In my opinion, the book needs more spit and polish as there were too many cliches.

The Ugly: One word – scrunchie? No, no, no! Not unless it’s the 1980′s. Other lines that made me cringe were “loose locks flowing aimlessly over her shoulder”. Now that smacked of school essay once but twice is unforgiveable: “And her hair was loose, the chestnut strands flowing over her shoulders”. But my absolute favourite was Fiona and Dan in bed: “Take me, Dan!” No, no, no, no, NOOOOOOO!!!!

So, to summarise, I did enjoy this book. The cheesey, farcical and amateurish parts made me giggle more than groan. And the main question I am left with is: did Shakespeare truly not write all those plays?

Thank you to Thrilling Books for sending me a copy of this book to review.