McDermid's latest whodunnit adds twist to the tale of Marlowe's mysterious death

It has all the makings of a classic Val McDermid mystery: a sudden death, a cast of shadowy figures and a tangle of motives buried beneath layers of official secrecy.

- Nadia Khomami

But this time the queen of crime fiction is not inventing a murder; she is revisiting one of history's most enduring whodunnits - the mysterious death of Christopher Marlowe.

In her new play, And Midnight Never Come, McDermid explores the controversial circumstances around the death of the brilliant and subversive Elizabethan playwright who was stabbed to death in a Deptford tavern at the age of 29. Officially, Marlowe was killed over a row about a bill. Unofficially? Espionage, heresy and a state-sanctioned cover-up are all in the frame.

"This play has been a long time in the making; I started thinking about it more than 40 years ago," McDermid said. "Over the years, I think I've read pretty much everything that's been written about Marlowe.

"And I think there's another story lurking in the background here. I've got my own theory of what happened. I don't want to give away spoilers, but I will say that I don't think Christopher Marlowe was meant to die that day. My conclusion will surprise people, but I think it will also make sense of something people have long found unsatisfactory."

Researchers widely believe that Marlowe worked as an intelligence agent during his lifetime, most likely within the spy network of Sir Francis Walsingham.