Tamburlaine Must Die - Paperback

by Louise Welsh (Author)

London, 1593.

A city on edge.

Under threat from plague and war, strangers are unwelcome, suspicion is wholesale, severed heads grin from the spikes on Tower Bridge.

Playwright, poet and spy, Christopher Marlowe walks the city's mean streets with just three days to find the murderous Tamburlaine, a killer escaped from the pages of his most violent play.

Tamburlaine Must Die is the searing adventure of a man who dares to defy both God and the state and whose murder remains a taunting mystery to the present day.

Back Jacket

"A taut, seedy novella scraped off the undercarriage of Elizabethan England." Arena

It is 1593 and London is a city on edge. Under threat from plague and war, strangers are unwelcome and severed heads grin from spikes on Tower Bridge. Tamburlaine Must Die is the story of the last days of the playwright Christopher Marlowe, a man who dares to defy both God and state - and discovers that there are worse fates than damnation . . .

"Elizabethan England has never seemed so beguilingly immediate ... Every vignette, every minor character, every sight, sound and smell, has the ring of truth." Sunday Telegraph

"Pungently atmospheric." Observer

"Tamburlaine Must Die sets the seal on Welsh's skills as a writer. She weaves fact and fiction into a compelling plot not for the faint-hearted." Scotland on Sunday

"Bold, imaginative, vibrant." Daily Telegraph

"A page-turner to the very end." Sunday Herald

Author Biography

Louise Welsh is the bestselling author of The Cutting Room and Tamburlaine Must Die. She was chosen as one of Britain's Best First Novelists of 2002 by the Guardian, won The Crime Writers' Association Creasey Dagger for the best first crime novel, and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award, 2002. Her new novel, The Bullet Trick is published in paperback Feb 2007. She lives in Glasgow.