The Shakespeare Secret: A Novel

Shakespeare is a woman—three women, in fact, who hire a footloose actor as the face of their writing. When they become suspects in a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth, their secret identity is suddenly at risk—along with the queen’s life—in this imaginative historical novel for fans of Hamnet and The Tower.

Everyone knows of William Shakespeare, the rakish former actor and famous playwright. But few know the three women writing every word of his plays: Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke, a frustrated poet; Emelia Bassano, a court musician with a passion for complex stories; and Jane Daggett, a seamstress with an impressive ability to spin fantastic plots. Frustrated by the patriarchal restrictions of their sixteenth-century society, they come together to write anonymously.

Soon the three women come under the scrutiny of one of the Queen’s spies, who notices their surreptitious meetings and odd behavior and suspects they are involved in an ongoing plot to kill the Queen. To help guard their secret as they face inquisition, they hire an actor named Will Shakespeare to be the face of their endeavor and divert attention.

As the plague deepens its grip on London and the Queen’s man traces their every move, the women are forced to choose between admitting what they’ve done and betraying each other to the Crown or hiding the truth at risk of endangering the Queen herself.

The Shakespeare Secret is a thrilling feminist tale of perseverance, justice, and freedom where friendship and trust are put to the test, for fans of Tracy Chevalier and Charlie Lovett.