For fans of Hamnet and The Miniaturist: a delightfully twisty epistolary revenge romp set in the world of Restoration theater.
London, 1674. The Puritans are down, the plague is out, and the theaters are back in business.
Mariana Quinn and Thomasin Rivers are rival “Female Wits,” playwrights with a romantic past, competing for space on the London stage. When Thomasin’s play is plagiarized by the theater manager George Petherbridge, and Mariana finds herself subject to a scathing critique by a fervent puritan campaigner Nathaniel Birch, the women forge an alliance to plot a savage revenge, in which each Wit will go after her rival’s adversary. With nothing to link Mariana to George, or Thomasin to Nathaniel, their actions should be free from suspicion.
Through their letters, the women play an increasingly clever game of blackmail, seduction, gender-swapping, and literary trickery—but it soon becomes clear that not everyone is playing by the same rules. Can Mariana and Thomasin be blamed for using their wit to secure their futures—and can it protect them from love?