A cipher is a series of well-defined numbers and letters that can be followed to reveal a secret story. Fellows explains that ciphers were most commonly used by William Shakespeare in his sonnets and plays, which contain hidden messages in a coded form known as the Bi-literal or Trithemius cipher systems. She argues convincingly that by using these two systems, the reader can find a new and completely different story hidden within Shakespeare's texts-the true story of the life of Francis Bacon, the illegitimate child of Queen Elizabeth I, England's "Virgin Queen," and of the Elizabethan Age. Included are black-and-white pictures of people either related to or involved in this historical conspiracy about Bacon and Shakespeare's great plays. Fellows's book was first self-published in 2000, after 30 years of research; the author died in 2005. This new translation includes a closing chapter dealing strictly with ciphers, as well as correlative sources and some examples of the strange use of fonts, italics, and capitalization as part of the code. Recommended for libraries with a large collection on English literature. -Jessica Bermúdez
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