The Book of Air and Shadows

A distinguished Shakespearean scholar found tortured to death. . . . A lost manuscript and its secrets buried for centuries. . . . An encrypted map that leads to incalculable wealth. . . The Washington Post called Michael Gruber's previous work a miracle of intelligent fiction and among the essential novels of recent years. Now comes his most intellectually provocative and compulsively readable novel yet. Jake Mishkin's seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the center of a deadly conspiracy and a chase to find a priceless treasure involving William Shakespeare. When a fire in an antiquarian bookstore reveals the hiding place of long-concealed letters containing a shocking secret, Jake finds himself matching wits with a shadowy figure who seems to anticipate his every move. What at first seems like a thrilling puzzle waiting to be deciphered soon turns into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, where no one not family, not friends, not lovers is to be trusted. Moving between twenty-first-century America and seventeenth-century England, The Book of Air and Shadows is a modern thriller that brilliantly re-creates William Shakespeare's life at the turn of the seventeenth century and combines an ingenious and intricately layered plot with a devastating portrait of a contemporary man on the brink of self-discovery or self-destruction. A fast-moving tale about the world of rare books. A wonderful story with absolutely superb casting. -Kirkus