Amazon Editorial Review:

A fire destroys a New York City rare bookstore—and reveals clues to a treasure worth killing for. . . . A disgraced scholar is found tortured to death. . . . And those pursuing the most valuable literary find in history are about to cross from the harmless mundane into inescapable nightmare.

From the acclaimed, bestselling author of Tropic of Night comes a breathtaking thriller that twists, shocks, and surprises at every turn as it crisscrosses centuries, from the glaring violence of today into the dark shadows of truth and lies surrounding the greatest writer the world has ever known.

A rare bookshop has a fire and in trying to salvage one of the rare books two of the employees find some pages written by Bracegirdle. Bracegirdle was an employee of Shakespeare. He alludes to a lost play.

Jake Mishkin is an Intellectual Property lawyer. When one of the employees sells part of the find to a professor, the professor seeks out Mishkin to keep the manuscript safe. What follows is classic thriller. Bad guys, treasure, kidnapping, ciphers, killing and some dashing around.

This is a thriller I should love to read but I didn't. I can't seem to put my finger on it. It might have been the hard to read Old English Bracegirdle letters. It might have been the confusing what is happening now plot. Maybe the plot was just a bit too complex or maybe this book's pace is too slow. Not the book for me.

mailed to WestofMars as a RABCK payback

What a surprise! Thanks, babe! Now I need to make more time to read...

I tried. But the rambling first-person narration did me in, as did the less-than-gripping characters of Crosetti and Rolly.