The Shakespeare Secret

Three women secretly write under Shakespeare’s name in this diverting outing from Nix (To the Gates of Hell, as David Nix). Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke; lute player Emilia Bassano; and illiterate seamstress Jane Daggett have a shared interest in the theater and a mutual disdain for the works performed in the Elizabethan court, most of which portray their female characters as passive and vapid. The trio’s initial conversation inspires Jane to develop the germ of the plot that eventually becomes The Taming of the Shrew, which they write together. Emilia suggests they find a man to pose as its playwright, so they can get it staged. Jane has just the person in mind: Will Shakespeare, a player in the Queen’s Men, the acting troop Jane sews costumes for. Will agrees, but as the covert dramatists work to finish the play in time to perform for Queen Elizabeth during a feast the day after Christmas, their gatherings come to the attention of one of the queen’s spies, who suspects the women are conspiring to bring down the monarch. Nix maintains tension throughout, despite readers’ foreknowledge that the plan to ghostwrite Shakespeare’s works will succeed. It’s a well-played take on a long-standing literary mystery. (July)