The sonnet lover by Carol Goodman

A sonnet, as you most likely know, is a poem of 14 lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme, the most famous sonnet writer being Shakespeare. But what if he had a secret love - the famous Dark Lady of his verse - and she too was a poet? That's the rather romantic premise of this literary thriller.

Dr Rose Asher is a lecturer in Renaissance poetry who, devastated by the death of her star pupil, travels to Tuscany and tries to unravel the mystery that is his legacy. But there are complications. At a Tuscan villa she must face the man she loved and lost. And there is an atmosphere of threat that soon turns into a very present danger.

As a whodunit, this book doesn't quite make it. But Goodman's achievement is that the plot remains gripping as she meshes together two love stories and traces her heroine's struggle to survive, find love and solve a centuries-old literary mystery.

*Piatkus, $36.99

- Detours, HoS