RebeccaReads
Personally I never did like or understand any of Shakespeare's work but after reading "Who's To Blame?" by Jeffery S. Williams I have a different appreciation for the old classics. He has warped the plots into humorous and peculiar tales that any one will find entertaining.

Williams' SherChristispeare takes on a role of his own as he, and his assistant Pancho, uncover the plot of mysterious deaths. As I kept reading the book I had no problem envisioning the funny, vociferous, and strident characters and situations. The author's writing is very vivid and the character development suburb. He was also able to keep the story on track with the original writings.

Although the story is a spoof, the underlying tones indicate the Williams knows the original stories very well and did additional research to give the reader an experiential read. This laugh-out-loud yarn, with unabashed twists and turns will give you a perspective you'll never forget - just like we remember the original stories we read so many years ago.

If you are looking for a fun book, this is it.

Malcolm Campbell



SherChristispeare, "the greatest sleuth during Renaissance England" and Pancho, "the most loyal of sidekicks during Renaissance England" have two cases to solve in Jeffery S. Williams' delightfully clever spoof of the Immortal Bard's beloved "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet."

In Book One, SherChristispeare travels to Denmark to find out what manner of conspiracy led to the death of Hamlet and other notables. After using his advanced investigative skills and witty turns of phrase--while fending off siren spies and other tasty evils--to bring order to the chaos behind the crimes, our sleuth heads for Verona where Romeo, Juliet and others have recently been murdered in a manner must curious, if not foul. As they unearth twisted clues and sharp retorts, SherChristispeare and Pancho discover (more than once) that their lives are in jeopardy, and frankly they don't see as much humor in it as readers will espy.

No knowledge of the Shakespeare plays is required to enjoy this hilarious novel. However, readers familiar with "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet" will find Williams' humor a rich stew seasoned with non-stop references and tangled-up lines. Suffice it to say, while all's well that end's well in "Who's to Blame?," SherChristispeare's evidence points everyone--including the reader--in unforeseen directions, most of which are complicated, elaborate, and somewhat different than the original author of the plays anticipated.

The greatest strength of this novel arises out of dialogue which is clever, crafted by an adept author with a deep knowledge of his source material, and that is almost pure burlesque in style and tone. This dialogue is most effective in scenes where it introduces characters or otherwise advances the plot:

"Noble Ambassador," I said and bowed, "I am SherChristispeare court--"
He waved me off. "I know who you are."
I straightened to my full measure, "I am here to ask you about--"
"The Queen, the King, the Prince, and a soul named Laertes--all blood-stained and most still, most secret, and most grave." His eyes twinkled at his pun."
"So they were all at supper, ay?" I said.
"Supper?"
"Food for worms."
"For what?"
"Never mind. What did you learn?"
The Ambassador recounted the story of we he had heard from the voice of Horatio--rife with carnal, bloody and unnatural acts, of accidental judgments, casual slaughters, and deaths put on by cunning and forced abuses.
"Tragical-comical. Historical-ironical," I said.

Williams doubles the strength of his parody by making SherChristispeare and Pancho aware that they are punning, borrowing lines, and creating highly crafted Shakespearian-style wit. In dueling conversations between the sleuth and his sidekick, points are lost for lack of originality and theft from the Bard himself.

The novel sags ever so slightly in a few places where the plot is moved onto the back burner, giving way to long strings of one-liners which are essentially bouts of verbal one-upmanship. The plot, while inventive is overtly farcical and serves in many ways more as a scaffold for the jokes than as a strong storyline.

That said, "Who's to Blame?" belongs on the top shelf of comedy with Richard Armour's "Twisted Tales from Shakespeare" and our other favorite parodies. Lovers of words and wit will admire the care with which this sleuthing jest was created, wherein wordplay's the game to bring an able sleuth acclaim.






Norm Goldman
Jeffery S. Williams' second book marks a change in genre for this Fresno, California author; his first book was titled Pirate Spirit: The Adventures of Anne Booney and focused on one of history's most infamous female pirates. In this second ambitious foray, Who's To Blame Williams crafts a rollicking spoof and an absolutely hilarious take on two of Shakespeare's most famous plays that many hold sacred, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet which are divided into two distinct parts or books. This is certainly not the first of such spoofs and probably will not be the last as over the years there have been a flood of parodies written about Shakespeare's works. Just look at the infinite number takes on Hamlet's famous soliloquy, "To be or not to be." However, Who's To Blame is an unexpected delight!

You can easily tell that Williams has done plenty of work as he exercises a great deal of latitude in constructing his own versions of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. However, he never loses sight of the principal characters of both plays as he captures the style and substance of Shakespeare. And in order to really shake up the plots, Williams has crafted the whacky characters of Sir SherChristispeare, Great Britain's greatest sleuth in sixteenth-century England as his protagonist and his sidekick Pancho who is described as the "most loyal of sidekicks during Renaissance England."

For readers who are not too familiar with The Bard, Book One patterns itself for the most part on the general theme of Hamlet with its setting and contextual elements wherein Sir SherChristispeare is informed by Prince Henry that the entire court of Denmark consisting of King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet, Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, Councilor Polonius, Brother Laertes, and a pregnant Sister Ophelia, have been brutally murdered and he fears that there is some kind of conspiracy going on. Nightly, ghosts are haunting the castle and it has become so unbearable that King Fortinbras of Norway, who has now taken over in Denmark, requests that the priest "that he might beteem the winds of heaven to exorcise the ghosts from the castle. When that fails, Fortinbras returns to Norway." Consequently, the task at hand is for Sir SherChristispeare to immediately go to Denmark and ferret out the ghosts and goblins of these weird and inexplicable deaths. As Sir SherChristispeare states, he doesn't believe that neither Prince Hamlet nor King Claudius is to blame and thus the challenge of uncovering the truth behind the mystery has ignited him to action.

Book Two likewise humorously mimics the original Romeo and Juliet and it likewise involves a murder wherein six members of the royal families of Verona were slain, notably Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, Lady Montague, Romeo and Juliet. Again there seems to be a conspiracy, however, it is will be a difficult task to pinpoint just what happened as there does not seem to be any clues as to whom may have committed this hideous crime.

One of the key ingredients of Who's To Blame is Williams admirable skill with dialogue which is continually peppered with witticisms particularly during the rapid-fire bantering between Sir SherChristispeare and Pancho, case in point: "Remember, if brevity is the soul of wit, then redundancy is the excrement of the fool." Another: "I broke into soliloquy, though Pancho was with earshot, which technically made it a monologue-a dramatic ironical tone."

And how about William's twist on Hamlet's soliloquy To Be or Not to Be:

"For me or not for me: that is the query.

Whether'tis nobler in the loins to suffer

The slings and arrows of frustrated sexual fortune

Or to take her in mine arms against a sea of moral laws

And, by opposing, end them with ecstasy. To couple, to tumble

No more-and by giving into temptation say we end..."

It is here as well as many other sections of the parody where William's true intelligence, refreshingly unique voice and acumen for humor are revealed to the reader. (It should be mentioned that Williams is a high school English teacher and I can well-imagine how he makes Shakespeare come alive in the classroom.) In fact, there were times Williams even had me comparing Sir SherChristispeare to our modern day Detective Columbo of TV fame who thanks to his eye for detail and his meticulous as well as his committed approach manages to solve the crime. I wonder who Williams was pattering SherChristispeare after?

Williams is very inventive and innovative and coupled with his gifted imagination succeeds in avoiding a common pitfall of alienating lovers of Shakespeare as he effectively stitches farce, slapstick and even some romance into a ridiculous quilt of literary entertainment. I am sure you will chuckle and laugh until your belly hurts! If you enjoy offbeat fiction, Who's To Blame is likely to win your heart and do come along for the ride. You won't be sorry.

Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures