{"id":23860,"date":"2024-12-30T10:24:17","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T17:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=23860"},"modified":"2024-12-30T10:24:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T17:24:17","slug":"in-the-company-of-knaves-the-lost-years-of-william-shakespeare-book-3-by-anthony-wildman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=23860","title":{"rendered":"In the Company of Knaves: The Lost Years of William Shakespeare Book 3 by Anthony Wildman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Intriguing, immersive, and masterfully wrought\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the heart of Elizabethan London, a stolen play threatens to unravel Shakespeare\u2019s career\u2014and his life\u2014in the third installment of Wildman\u2019s The Lost Years of William Shakespeare<\/em> series. It\u2019s the winter of 1589. Shakespeare\u2019s career is thrown into chaos when Lord Strange\u2019s Men are shut down over a minor infraction. Forced to write Titus Andronicus<\/em> for a rival company, Shakespeare\u2019s plans quickly collapse when the manuscript\u2014and the company\u2019s entire collection of plays\u2014are stolen. Desperate, Shakespeare enlists the help of the resourceful Edward \u2018Cutting\u2019 Ball. Their search leads them deep into a deadly web of theatrical rivalries and political machinations that reach the court of Queen Elizabeth I herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wildman crafts a nuanced portrait of Shakespeare as a man torn between ambition and self-doubt\u2014a relatable figure grappling with the weight of his time. Edward, a morally ambiguous yet charismatic character, serves as a fascinating counterpoint to Shakespeare\u2019s idealism. The dynamic between these two men\u2014one a playwright, the other a thief\u2014adds layers of tension and complexity to the plot. Wildman excels at weaving historical context into the narrative without overwhelming the reader. The political intrigues of Elizabeth I\u2019s court and the cutthroat world of rival theater companies are seamlessly integrated into the story. The stakes are high, not just for Shakespeare, but for the people and institutions that orbit his world. Wildman\u2019s prose is both elegant and accessible, capturing the cadence of Elizabethan English while remaining compelling for modern readers. Themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the cost of ambition run deep throughout the novel. Wildman captures Shakespeare\u2019s internal struggle to reconcile creative integrity with the harsh realities of survival in a ruthless, competitive world\u2014an enduring conflict that still resonates today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A thrilling blend of historical intrigue, personal ambition, and theatrical rivalry. Lovers of Shakespeare, historical fiction, and compelling, character-driven stories won\u2019t want to miss this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pub date January 28, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plutus Publishing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASIN B0DMZHG789<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price $6.99 Kindle edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intriguing, immersive, and masterfully wrought\u2026 In the heart of Elizabethan London, a stolen play threatens to unravel Shakespeare\u2019s career\u2014and his life\u2014in the third installment of Wildman\u2019s The Lost Years of William Shakespeare series. It\u2019s the winter of 1589. Shakespeare\u2019s career is thrown into chaos when Lord Strange\u2019s Men are shut down over a minor infraction. Forced to write Titus Andronicus for a rival company, Shakespeare\u2019s plans quickly collapse when the manuscript\u2014and the company\u2019s entire collection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":23862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[723770575,7223,91,3328,178,1584897,92732,723770576,1136176,1473,1008073,856121,309,723770579,723770577,723770578,349],"class_list":["post-23860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-anthony-wildman","tag-author","tag-blogging","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-historical-drama","tag-historical-fiction","tag-in-the-company-of-knaves","tag-indie-books","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-shakespeare","tag-the-lost-years-of-william-shakespeare","tag-william-shakespeare","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/51aOHKef8VL._SY445_SX342_.jpg?fit=290%2C445&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-6cQ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23860"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23863,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23860\/revisions\/23863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}