Will is an ex-Marine and creator of Internet sensation Bad Toys (display of dolls in naughty positions), with love towards history. While Tommy Jones, who is just being in remission from leukimia, is working on his dissertation about Christopher Marlowe, and has been seeing Marlowe's ghost, which makes his uncle worried. Will is sent to Oxford by Tommy's uncle, to fetch Tommy but instead, he finds Tommy and the whole idea of Christopher Marlowe alive as intriguing ... and he finds himself in love with the younger man.Marlowe's Ghost is a combination of paranormal (there's well, Christopher "Kit" Marlowe's Ghost), literary mystery (Will and Tommy searching for the truth about Kit Marlowe -- was he really killed in Deptford in 1593 or did he escape to Germany or even Italy), romance (between Will and Tommy), and a little bit of action. It is all tied up very nicely, in Sarah Black's typical writing: melancholy, tender, and lyrical.The story might start a little flat ... no big revelation or angsty drama; if you read many Sarah Black's stories, I think you know how she writes. But you feel that tenderness when Will starts to fall in love with Tommy. It's soft like whispers of the wind, the way Will thinks of his feeling ..."It was too soon, probably they were rushing things, but he had been alone a long time, lonely for a longer time."There is an increase of pace, when Will's attempt to display his Bad Toys at the British Museum results in the officers thinking of it as terrorist attack, and Will and Tom must quickly leave England, and they escape to Paris -- and in that city of love, their love is just getting stronger."This may be my only chance. And I want to go with you, because I love you more than I love the air I breathe"I love the whole 'mystery' about Kit Marlowe, and there is a smart 'twist' in the end that Will and Tommy discover. I feel that this is one of the most romantic stories from the pen of Sarah Black, with backdrop of Oxford, Paris, and Padua (Italy). Just gorgeous.
