Delia — Elliott Baker

It is estimated that more than four thousand works have been published about the true authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Delia differs from all the others in three respects: first, it is fiction; second, it has a contemporary setting; and lastly, in the way it approaches the subject.

Elliott Baker has resorted to the familiar hero of a private eye to tell his story. Lance Oliphet joins Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe in his willingness to take on any assignment if the fee is right. This one is to track Delia Bacon, who first began the authorship controversy, which gives her a 150-year head start on him. The trail leads from New York to London and Stratford-Upon-Avon and Lance into a battle to the death with the vested interests of the multi-billion dollar Shakespeare industry.

Elliott Baker deftly mixes mystery, comedy and scholarship in his original solution to one of the world's greatest puzzles. Even those who've never wondered if Shakespeare really wrote Hamlet will be fascinated.