Four centuries of silence. 
 
One manuscript that could set the world on fire. 
 
When literary historian Naomi Reed inherits an iron-clasped folio sealed inside an heirloom Bible, she unlocks a voice long buried: 
 
Emilia Bassano Lanier, a 17th-century poet who moved through palaces and back alleys with equal mastery—and who may have written the works the world calls Shakespeare’s. What begins as a quiet academic find erupts into an international battle over genius, race, and ownership. 
 
Publishers and politicians close ranks. Museums and universities launch covert counterstrikes. Evidence disappears. And every page of the diary drags readers deeper into plague-ridden London, where Emilia outwits spies, courts monarchs, and builds a literary empire behind a stranger’s name. 
 
Naomi must fight on two fronts: the brutal courtroom arena of the present and the shadow-strewn intrigues of the past, each chapter revealing new betrayals and impossible choices. 
 
The Dark Lady is a sweeping speculative thriller of art, ambition, and power—blending the layered intrigue of Game of Thrones with the razor suspense of a legal drama. A hidden history surges to the surface, threatening to rewrite everything we think we know about literature, legacy, and who gets to claim genius.