When an old friend and colleague passes away, an LSU English
professor named Jack Claire travels to Swansea, Wales, to attend
the funeral and is bequeathed a cache of handwritten manuscripts,
the plays of William Shakespeare, along with a rare, leather-bound
copy of the "First Folio" --the first collection of Shakespeare's
plays. A problem arises, however, when he recognizes that the
handwriting is NOT William Shakespeare's. He returns to Baton Rouge
with and attempts to authenticate the documents, inadvertently
alerting a ruthless collector who covets these priceless literary
artifacts. The collector hires a relentless mercenary to steal the
Shakespeare papers. Benedict resorts to violence when his
surreptitious searches fail.
In California, Joseph Lawrence Conrad, a handsome young college
instructor, receives mysterious handwritten original plays of
Shakespeare. Not an Elizabethan scholar, Joe Conrad seeks the help
of a colleague named Jonathan "Smitty" Smythe, a literary Sherlock
Holmes to Joe's Watson. At once, Smitty recognizes the potential of
the manuscripts and enlists the aid of Silvia Williamson, a
brilliant and beautiful African-American scholar from Berkeley. As
these three amateur sleuths labor to authenticate the manuscripts
and determine the true author of Shakespeare's plays, they learn
someone is after the priceless papers --and he's leaving a trail of
bodies in his wake. Eventually, everyone connected to the
Shakespeare papers is in danger, including Joe's wife and
children.
Plots intersect as the scholars discover evidence (based on
thorough research) pointing to the most probable author(s) of
Shakespeare's works, while the ruthless collector grows closer to
the prize. Along the way, Joe and the others are assisted by police
detective Ryan Dunn, who saved Joe and his family years earlier,
FBI Agent Terry Lott, who helps uncover the identity of the
mercenary, and Bill Morgan, an attorney who assists in protecting
the Shakespeare papers and the family.
This fast-paced journey of discovery takes these appealing
characters from Louisiana to California, to Washington, DC, Oxford,
England, Swansea, Wales, and back to London where they discover a
surprising link to today's Queen Elizabeth and the Royal Family,
which ultimately leads Joe and Smitty to Stratford-upon-Avon, where
they come face to face with a surprising and lethal truth.
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