Critical Praise

"Smith has succeeded in building up considerable suspense around the mystery of Shakespeare's authorship. But perhaps best of all is the way the novel returns us again and again to Shakespeare's words. Smith reminds us that Shakespeare still matters -- whoever he was."

——Seattle Times

"Anyone who enjoyed...A. S. Byatt's Possession or Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time will be suitably charmed -- and enlightened. Literate, polished literary entertainment."