The roaring boy

A mysterious stranger appears at the Queen's Head pub following a performance by Lord Westfield's Men, a leading Elizabethan company of players. The stranger, Simon Chaloner, follows Nicholas Bracewell, the producer, and playwright Edmund Hoode home and gives them a manuscript called 'The Roaring Boy'. His drama is based on events surrounding the murder of a mathematician. When Bracewell and Hoode stage the play, the performance causes a riot, sending Hoode to prison. In order to save his men, Bracewell must solve two murders, one being that on which the play is based.