Most fans of Shakespeare are sure that William Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's plays. But a small but increasing group of scholars think that the true Shakespeare was a mysterious literary nobleman, Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford--and a mystery novelist may have found the best evidence yet proving them right.

While researching a book about the Shakespeare authorship, bestselling novelist Sarah Smith stumbled by chance on a remarkable play-length poem--36 pages--that is almost certainly by Oxford. Oxford was previously known only for short poems, and, according to Professor Steven May, author of The Elizabethan Courtier Poets, they are hardly better than average. But the poem Smith discovered has extraordinary similarities to Shakespeare's work.

Under the unexciting title "The Pain of Pleasure", Smith found a lively, funny, and beautifully written description of a courtier's education: dancing, hawking, hunting, music, a well-known description of early tennis, extensive reading. "The Pain of Pleasure" was supposed to be by Anthony Munday, but its authorship had always been questioned. "Whodunnit? I had to find out."

Using her sleuthing skills, she eliminated Munday, investigated May's forty courtier poets, and found only one: likely suspect--Oxford, Munday's employer.

The poem is interesting not only because it's Oxford's, but because it has many Shakespearean characteristics -- an enormous vocabulary, dramatic voices, a big cast of characters, an interest in character psychology, and memorable writing. Is it Shakespeare's? Smith is cautious. "The Shakespeare we know had read Marlowe, Spenser, Sidney, even Munday before he put his name to his first poem. What would a really early Shakespeare poem look like?"

She has posted it online so that scholars can weigh in on the issue.

Smith comes by her credentials honestly as both a scholar and a novelist. A PhD from Harvard, she won several major fellowships and prizes, including Fulbright and Mellon fellowships, before leaving academia to write novels. Two of her previous novels have been named New York Times Notable Books, and her books have become bestsellers here and abroad. Her work is published in fourteen languages, and one of her novels has been optioned for film.

Has her experience in finding the poem shaped the book she's written? "Definitely. It has been such a scary and exciting experience to work with the poem, I wanted to write about people to whom something that scary and exciting happens--not only what they find but how they feel about it. Joe's and Posy's experience is why I had to write the novel."

Kirkus Reviews has compared Chasing Shakespeares to Possession and The Daughter of Time, and novelist Iain Pears calls it "One of those novels that get more subtle the more you think about it… a remarkable achievement, beautifully written, blending history and fantasy, past and present, ideas and emotions into a seamless whole which is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking."