In 1598, Ben Jonson and Thomas Nashe wrote a play entitled, The Isle of Dogs. After
its premier performance it was labeled , a "lewd play full of slanderous matter," and
immediately suppressed by the crown. No copy has ever been found.
Ketren Pryce never suspects refashioning old clothes could be treacherous until
a pawned bodice lands her afoul of the authorities. To keep the seamstress out of trouble,
her brother turns to the Lord Chamberlain's Men, hoping London's famous acting
company can use a gifted stitcher. But it isn't until she saves the acting company's
youngest member with some quick-witted improvisation, that her pluck and intelligence
earn her an apprenticeship as the company's stitcher.
When Ketren refashions a crimson bodice into a costume for Much Ado About
Nothing, she discovers state secrets stitched alongside a sonnet and soon discovers
Shakespeare holds the quill that penned the poetic clue. The stitcher turns to the
playwright for an explanation and gets the entire company entangled in the courtly
intrigue surrounding the outlawed play, The Isle of Dogs. Ketren enlists the aid of her
two new friends, a Blackamoor apprentice and a young actor who prefers skirts to
trousers, as she adventures across London's stages trying to avoid the Queen's spies. The
conspiracy is stitched up at Queen Elizabeth's Whitehall Palace during a Christmas
performance, leading William Shakespeare to observe, "Maids in breeches, boys in gowns,
murder, ghosts, kidnapping, plus vengeance . . . it's great fodder for poetry." But Ketren
soon learns all is not won when she discovers her Black'amour stabbed and almost dead
and her best friend missing.
Based on real life events, The Player's Apprentice is a richly detailed Elizabethan-
era mystery featuring the players of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and a behind-the-
scenes look at the production of royal entertainments and the lives of the men and women
who perform at Queen Elizabeth's leisure. The novel includes short biographies of the
historical dramtis personae.
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