Good Bones and Simple Murders is a book by Canadian author Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

, originally published in 1994. Although classified with Atwood’s short fiction, it is an eclectic collection, featuring parables, monologues, prose poems, condensed science fiction, reconfigured fairy tales, as well as Atwood’s own illustrations. Much of the book is a reprint of two earlier Atwood works, Good Bones

Good Bones

Good Bones is a collection of short fiction by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The collection was originally published in 1992....

and Murder in the Dark

Murder in the Dark

Murder in the Dark is a collection of short fiction by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1983. Certain of the pieces were previously published. The 27 pieces range over a variety of styles, including fictionalized autobiography, parables, travel stories, satires and prose poems...

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The story Gertrude Talks Back sees Gertrude

Gertrude (Hamlet)

In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark. Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent, since he resents her for marrying her husband's brother Claudius after he murdered the King...

, mother of Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

 setting her son straight about Old Hamlet's murder: "It wasn't Claudius

King Claudius

King Claudius is a character and the antagonist from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. He is the brother to King Hamlet, second husband to Gertrude and uncle to Hamlet. He obtained the throne of Denmark by murdering his own brother with poison and then marrying the late king's widow...

, darling, it was me!"