The Stinky Stolen Toenails (Will Shakespeare Mysteries)

The young Will Shakespeare, with his friend, Tybalt, wants to become famous as a Person-Who-Solves-Crimes, and he thinks there should be a word for that… Ordered by his mum to clean the privy (which is explained), he is only too willing to be distracted by the wailing of his neighbour, Ronald Moundsofgoo, who has been told that he cannot marry Judy Catapult (we get the references) unless he hands over the Moundsofgoo Treasure, but it’s been stolen. Now this Treasure is actually a bag of King Henry VIII’s toenails, given to Ronald’s grandad, the blacksmith, for shoeing the King’s horse on his way through Stratford-upon-Avon. They are supposed to have healing powers, and the boys soon find that a small bag of other toenails doesn’t fool Master Catapult, so they have to try and find the real thing. The sensible Tybalt, who writes awful poetry, manages to dissuade Will from some of his imaginative theories (that door might lead to the Fairy Kingdom) and tries to prevent Will from following the wrong clues, but they do get into some tricky situations. Near the end, Mum drags Will home in disgrace for not collecting the Christmas Pie for the Twelfth Night Party, but, stuck minding his baby brother in his room with his other brother, Gilbert, whom he calls ‘Perfect Pants’ because he’s so good at everything he does, he manages to work out who has the Treasure, and climbs out, trying not to be Will ShakeSplat…Using the props brought by travelling actors, including a donkey’s head, he gets the Treasure back, and all is well.

You will already have noticed that references to the plays are plentiful – Fair Rosaline appears, as does a character called Laurence Fryer, an apothecary who can’t turn lead into gold and keeps his dirty laundry in the cellar. Will reports that his mother berated him for telling stories, saying ‘it was just as well he wasn’t trying to earn a living telling stories, because no-one would swallow the sort of drivel I had just come up with.’ There are loads of funny asides and daft explanations, and Sammy Elgie’s cartoon illustrations are excellent – this will be great fun to read, especially for readers who know the story of Romeo and Juliet.