License to Quill by Jacopo della Quercia

Published by St. Martin's Griffin on December 15, 2015

License to Quill attempts to cross a James Bond spoof with a historical thriller. It doesn’t succeed in being either. To succeed as a Bond spoof, it needed to be brasher and bolder. It underplays the spoof and leaves us with historical fiction that is marred by the insertion of a Bond parody. A better novel in concept than in execution, License to Quill has some entertainment value even if it never quite gels.

With Christopher Marlowe condemned to die, William Shakespeare assumes Marlowe’s role as a British spy. This brings Shakespeare into contact with Guy Fawkes and Robert Catesby, who want Shakespeare to write a play that is set in Scotland and includes three witches. Shortly thereafter, Shakespeare is given an assignment as a Double-O operative. He is armed with gadgetry and ravens by Francis Bacon, who plays the role of Q.

As Marlowe slinks about on errands of espionage in Italy, Shakespeare frets about witches and Fawkes in England. Jacopo della Quercia tosses quite a bit of historical fact in with his historical fiction, including The Gunpowder Plot, which lies at the heart of the novel. To prove that the facts are factual, he peppers the text with footnotes, citing original sources. This seems unnecessary -- this is a novel, after all -- and it gives the image of authorial insecurity (“I researched this really really well, just look at all my sources”). As I usually do in a work of fiction, I found the footnotes distracting. They’re also an odd contrast to the silliness of the story as a whole.

Shakespeare and Marlowe have little personality, which seems odd for a well-researched book, given that both playwrights were overflowing with personality. In the hands of other writers, Guy Fawkes has been a complex, multifaceted character, but della Quercia has carved him from wood. Francis Bacon has no more personality than the ravens he controls. This should really have been a livelier novel than the author managed to make it.

The novel’s humor is flat, while the drama inspires too little tension. I didn’t buy Fawkes’ attempt to use Shakespeare as a propagandist, although that aspect of the plot is less outlandish than envisioning Shakespeare as 007. While it is serviceable, the prose is hardly Shakespearean. The plot has some fun moments but I’m not sure that License to Quill will entirely please fans of spy fiction, fans of comedy, or fans of historical fiction.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS