cHASING sHAKESPEARES

"The best novel about Shakespeare since Anthony Burgess's
Nothing Like the Sun"
--Samuel R. Delany

Joe has a letter from Shakespeare...
Posy has a tattoo...
Which would you rather see?

Joe Roper, a hardheaded and deserving young graduate student from Vermont, has been passionate about Shakespeare since he was a nine-year-old reading a duct-taped copy of the plays. When he discovers a letter signed by one W. Shakespeare of Stratford, he's clear it's a forgery--because it says Shakespeare didn't write the plays.

But he hasn't reckoned with Posy Gould. The daughter of a Hollywood producer, a glamorous rising star at Harvard, Posy has never seen a high concept she didn't like--and she's convinced the letter will make them both famous.

In a literary adventure reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code and Possession, the couple enter a world where the London Eye looks out over Shakespeare's city, Hollywood producers rub elbows with the Queen's court, and the world's greatest unsolved mystery resonates across five centuries. A first-rate thriller from one of the masters of the genre, Chasing Shakespeares spins a brilliant tale of love, art, and poetic justice.

"Wonderfully entertaining, thought-provoking, and highly readable--a stunning combination of fascinating fact and exciting fiction."--actor Sir Derek Jacobi

"As riverting as any film noir plot bursting with bodies"--Publishers Weekly

"A delicious literary mystery"--Baltimore Sun

"Marjorie Garber, meet Reese Witherspoon"--New York Times

"Romance, intrigue, and the literary whodunnit of our time"--Hallie Ephron

"A remarkable achievement, blending history and fantasy, past and present, ideas and emotions into a seamless whole that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking"--Iain Pears, author of An Instance of the Fingerpost

• Chasing Shakespeares has many DVD extras
• ...including the Shakespeare poem and press release about it
• ...and now Chasing Shakespeares is a play!
• Brooks School students, read and download "Three Shakespearean Mysteries" here.
• New York State English teachers, read and download "Teaching Shakespeare through Authorship" here.

Trade paperback from Simon & Schuster/Washington Square Press Readers' Club, with additional material for book groups, ISBN 0-7434-6483-4 now in 3rd printing