Marlowe's Ghost by Sarah Black

MarlowesGhostLGTitle: Marlowe’s Ghost

Author: Sarah Black

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Mystery, Suspense

Length: Novella (132pgs)

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (25th January 2012)

Heat Level: Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts

Reviewer: Pixie

Blurb: Former Marine Will Marlowe dreams of being a great classics scholar, but his subversive street art, Bad Toys, is what he does best. When he’s sent to London to retrieve Tommy Jones, what he’s really interested in is a chance to take Bad Toys global. He doesn’t expect cancer survivor Tommy to captivate him or to become the pet project of a real live—dead—author.

Meanwhile, Tommy is struggling to write a dissertation about Christopher Marlowe while conveniently ignoring the fact that he knows Marlowe didn’t die in 1593. And Marlowe’s ghost? He has an agenda all his own that seems to involve two parts mystery, one part romance.

Purchase Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=2746

Review: Will is finishing a degree when one of his professors asks him to go to England and retrieve his nephew as he was seriously ill and is now claiming to be able to talk to Christopher Marlowe.  He decides to go, but has no intention of dragging him back. Tommy is quite pleased to have a companion who doesn’t tell him he is mad and just lets him get on with his work.

This is an interesting story that is in parts mystery (what really happened to Marlowe), romance (Will & Tommy), paranormal (Marlowe’s ghost), comedy (bad toys) and a little bit of danger (fleeing England). It all comes together into a story that will hold your interest. Will is bitter, he is very bitter, he only joined the Corps for an education as it was his only option, but he came out scared and feeling used and abused by his Government.   He turns to Bad Toys as a form of expression. Tommy is trying desperately to find evidence that Marlowe lived and had fled the country to Germany in 1593, but he can find nothing to back his theory.

I think that both Will and Tommy needed each other.  They needed each other on a fundamental level that stopped both of them from falling into a pit that they wouldn’t have crawled out of. They had both been affected by something that they couldn’t control and delving into what happened to Marlowe and where he might have gone drew them both together.   Tommy was pulled out so he could stand back and see what was really before him and Will would drag him out to have some fun.   And Will would be dragged in so he could focus on something other than his cynicism and to stop him from stalling in his life.

I enjoyed the way that the author had Will and Tommy progressing in their relationship and that at least one of them acknowledged that maybe they were moving too fast, but that they didn’t care. The sex between them was hot but wasn’t prolific. I must say though that at times it felt a little high-brow.

So an enjoyable book that was well written in such a way as to keep your.   So, I will recommend this to those who like mystery, paranormal, comedy, anarchy and a love story that is a bit different.