A richly layered mystery, investigated by former spies with secrets and scandals of their own

I was drawn to THE BERKELEY SQUARE AFFAIR by the manuscript at its heart: a newly discovered version of Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Teresa Grant's latest novel begins with someone trying to steal the script from the theatre owner who plans to stage a production. The thief lets slip that the pages hold secrets, and that sets off an investigation into who wants the script and why.

The lead investigators are the theatre owner's friends, Malcolm and Suzanne Rannoch. They were spies during the Napoleonic Wars. They have skills at ferreting out information and a network of intelligence experts to help them. As they make headway on tracking down the would-be thief, they uncover more than they expected, truths about their families, their closest friends, and even each other.

I admired Grant's use of historical events and figures, as well as her liberal sprinkling of Shakespeare references throughout the novel. The Rannochs live in a small world of friends, acquaintances and colleagues, and they're all interconnected in different ways. It's a dense and intriguing plot sure to interest theatre aficionados and history buffs.

Grant is also a very detailed writer, and it's there that I found the book a bit tedious at times. Almost every sentence in some scenes is punctuated by an adjustment of Suzanne's skirts or the baby waving her arm just so. Sometimes a gesture can be telling about the character's frame of mind or it can help the reader better visualize the scene, but I found most of these asides not so much insightful as distracting.

THE BERKELEY SQUARE AFFAIR is part of a series, but I've read none of the other books and had no trouble following along. All in all, I quite enjoyed THE BERKELEY SQUARE AFFAIR and I recommend it, as both historical novel and mystery.