INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

"A feverishly paced action adventure" (The New York Times) about a long-lost Shakespeare work and a killer who reenacts the Bard's most bloody murders

On the eve of the Globe's production of Hamlet, Shakespeare scholar and theater director Kate Stanley's eccentric mentor Rosalind Howard gives her a mysterious box, claiming to have made a groundbreaking discovery. Before she can reveal it to Kate, the Globe is burned to the ground and Roz is found dead--murdered in the strange manner of Hamlet's father.

Inside the box, Kate finds the first piece in a Shakespearean puzzle, setting her on a deadly, high-stakes treasure hunt. From London to Harvard to the American West, Kate races to evade a killer and solve a tantalizing string of clues hidden in the words of Shakespeare, which may unlock one of history's greatest secrets. But Kate is not alone in this hunt, and the buried truth threatens to come at the ultimate cost.