Paperbacks: The Sonnet Lover, by Carol Goodman

In an entertaining summer read, American thriller writer Carol Goodman attempts to reveal the identity of Shakespeare's "Dark Lady". Investigative heroine Dr Rose Asher is a lecturer in Renaissance poetry at a modish New York College.

As a student she spent a year in Tuscany at the villa La Civetta, once home to the poet Ginevra de Laura – reputedly the bard's bit on the side. When Rose's most gifted student, Robin Weiss, dies in mysterious circumstances, she returns there to sleuth. Academic backstabbing takes on a whole new meaning in this atmospheric and smartly put together collegiate mystery.