Thirteenth Night (Fools' Guild Mysteries, #1)

 
#458
Title: Thirteenth Night (Fools' Guild Mysteries, #1)
Author: Alan Gordon
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Year: 1999
243 pages

Gordon imagines Feste, the fool from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, as a member of an elite guild of fools who, like the Illuminati (but much more amusing) influence European politics and, in this case, investigate a murder. Gordon's wordplay is quick and references Shakespeare's without interfering unduly with flow of the story. The plot is slightly convoluted, reminding me that if I were ever to murder someone, I would do better to strike quickly (as, Voldemort: "Kill the spare") than to prioritize exacting an imagined sweet revenge by means of twists, artifices, and a lengthy soliloquy to the victim re: why I delight in doing what I am about to do. This is the undoing of many nemeses of Bond, as well as Sideshow Bob, and the murderer here does not transcend its narcissistic lure.