Elizabeth Kostova’s Mystery Play is an atmospheric Gothic mystery that combines Dracula lore, international theater history, and an ancient evil into an elaborate story that stretches from Boston to Italy and Ireland. As the latest novel from the #1 bestselling author of The Historian, Mystery Play has the kind of sweeping historical mystery and richly layered atmosphere readers might expect from Kostova, although its sprawling narrative occasionally loses momentum along the way.
When Jay Turner returns to his family home in Boston after his mother’s sudden death, he expects the usual grim task of sorting through the belongings left behind. Instead, he finds a partially burned newspaper clipping bearing the name Gael Brogan, along with an antique leather-bound book that should not be in his possession. His mother had once been entrusted with the medieval volume, one of a set commissioned by Vlad Țepeș before his death, and she had always warned Jay that the books carried dangerous associations. She eventually donated the book to a museum, so its mysterious return to Jay’s hands—accompanied by two bloody footprints—is enough to convince him that whatever his mother was involved with may not have ended with her death.
Continue reading “Mystery Play by Elizabeth Kostova: A Gothic mystery steeped in theater history”