Hamlet kills Polonius thinking he is Claudius. Yet he cannot kill Claudius. Why? Hamlet, angry, tells Ophelia: “Take thee to a nunnery!” [nunnery: Renaissance slang for brothel] “There [in Heaven] is no shuffling; there the action lies in his true nature, and we ourselves compelled, even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, to give in evidence.” —King Claudius “Why does Hamlet attend the German university at Wittenberg? Why study at a university at all? An incorrigible symbolist, Shakespeare must secretly import what he does not openly impart.” Contrast resolute avenger Laertes, who would “cut [Hamlet’s] throat i’ the church”! Shakespeare understood the Freudian slip centuries before Dr. Freud in Vienna. Twice he employs it to give us hints. Queen Gertrude to her son Hamlet: “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? ... Alas, he’s mad!” “Prince Hamlet is a disillusioned idealist, a vital key to his generous, passionate, and tragically conscientious character.” Camelot—“Shakespeare specifically ties the assassination of Hamlet to the death of King Arthur and the collapse of the fellowship of the Round Table.”

Hollywood in the Thirties: Nazi saboteurs, gangsters running gambling ships, British spies and diplomats, FBI agents, starlets looking for the big break, cheap hustlers on the fringes of the law, local cops—some are friends and some are adversaries, but all are involved somehow with Riley Fitzhugh, a private eye who’s wondering whether the death of an English aristocrat really was an accident.

Roman Cavanaugh runs a small theater company in Ashland, Oregon, one that has gained a nation-wide reputation. When a new director comes to town, bringing with him an eccentric playwright, jealousies arise and tempers flare; suddenly a man is found murdered. Ro’s niece, Ginnie, is accused, and private investigators Charlie Meiklejohn and his wife, Constance Leidl, are called in to clear his name. They uncover a trail of secrets that threaten to tear apart the theater company and cause more violence.