Chasing Shakespeares

For me, Chasing Shakespeares isn't as much about who wrote Shakespeare as it is about why we want to know. In this regard, Joe Roper is an admirable character and a memorable hero. Some of the other characters are less admirable, less heroic, but still interesting. Sarah Smith made me want to know more about all of them. And certainly, there's plenty left unresolved at the end to fill a sequel. Let's hope! I also recommend her mystery series that began with The Vanished Child.

I think this is a great book. I read many plays by Shakespeare, but knew almost nothing about the authorship controversy, and would be unlikely to ever gather enough interest to read a non-fiction article or book on this subject. It takes great skill for an author to introduce such a topic in a work of fiction. While I only partially followed her discussions about good and bad verse, the arguments were rich and entertaining. Also, I greatly admired the author's ability to spin such a spectacle of wild tales, and yet keep the story together in the end. Her knowledge of nuances of the academic environment is also precise. I give this book a definite ``thumbs up''.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I got very caught up in the historical references and the intrigue. Although the author freely admits to embellishing or fabricating some of the literary references and historical events, I found this story to be very thought-provoking. Even folks who don't consider themselves to be Shakespeare fans would enjoy this one - a little romance, a little mystery, and a lot of literary education. Anglophiles will love the description of modern-day London!

What do we read -- and what do we read into the books we love? These are the big questions facing Sarah Smith's two academic detectives, the blue-collar Joe and upperclass Posy, as they set out on a race to prove the authenticity of a Shakespeare letter that Joe has stumbled across in his research. The letter could change scholarship as we know it: it purports to be from the Avon-based player, and it seems to say that he didn't write the plays attributed to his name but that a nobleman borrowed his name. Joe, of course, wants the real working-man to be the plays' author, but Posy is leaning toward someone more of her own social standing, and both have good cases that draw them from Boston to England and into each others' arms. So -- did Shakespeare write the letter? Did he write the plays? Drawing on actual, ongoing literary debates, Smith creates a lively, contemporary mystery with two engaging characters who end up finding out as much about themselves as they do about the playwright they both love.