Shakespeare Is Missing is a pair of tales with crossing arcs. The first begins in 1605. A man and woman carry on an illicit tryst in the Crown Inn, Oxford, England. The lovers are married; not, of course, to each other. A child is born of their clandestine affair. The man, whose reputation as a playwright and poet is growing throughout his country, is William Shakespeare. The woman is Jane Davenant, the wife of the inns proprietor, who sleeps peacefully one fl oor below. Jane will later be known as The Dark Lady of Shakespearean legend. The second tale, set in 2010, moves eastward across America then on to England. Its antagonist seeks vengeance against the Bard, foreshadowed by poems, which pathetically mimic Shakespeares style. The vengeance begins with thefts and vandalism of the Bards works in San Francisco and Las Vegas, then escalates from an assault in Milwaukee to explosive mayhem and murder at Washington DCs venerated Folger Shakespeare Library. To solve these crimes, Ovid Kent, a former DEA operative, now a rare book dealer, is hired by a billionaire English fi nancier and owner of the worlds largest private collection of Shakespeareana, an expected target of the mayhem. Ovid is aided throughout by the frequently evanescing Will Shakespeare himself. The storylines have their dramatic nexus in Oxford, in the very room of the very inn where the fi rst tale began. There, the stunning climax plays itself out in a breath-holding scene between Ovid, Will Shakespeare and the antagonist
