07/31/2025
The Shakespeare Secret by D.J. Nix
Was Shakespeare, well, Shakespeare? That's an even bigger question than "To be or not to be..."
In this compelling story, Shakespeare isn't exactly the man who wrote the plays. He's only part of that man. The front man.
Behind this particular great man in this great story are not one but three women. A sisterhood of creativity escaping, in secret, from the strictures that bound women's lives and women's ambitions in the Elizabethan court.
Mary Herbert, Emilia Bassano and Jane Daggett find each other in a quiet room at court while Shakespeare's company is performing something truly execrable before the Queen. They write a masterpiece - or at least the start of one. They need a man to go along with their scheme - which is where Shakespeare comes in.
But they've been noticed. No one believes that a group of women are capable of writing plays, but the queen's spymaster sees conspiracies everywhere - and is more than capable of believing that this women, meeting in secret, coming out with reams of written papers - are part of a wider plot, one spearheaded by men, of course - to overthrow the crown.
If their secret is revealed, they'll be reviled at best and exiled from court, society and even the possibility of working. If their secret remains a secret, they'll be executed. If they betray each other, some might survive, but at what cost?
The whole thing is utterly fascinating. The reader is in the room where the magic happens, where the plays come to life, and where a great, class-defying sisterhood is born and nurtured. The paranoia of the court - as well as the grit and s**t and endless scheming that make it glitter so brightly - are exposed at every level. But through it all, the creativity and sheer genius of the work - whoever wrote it - shines through.
nix.author
