Luisa Villareal has worked her entire life to find a place in academia. Her love of Shakespeare has driven her, since middle school, to higher and higher levels of scholarship. Now, in April 2014, she finally has her chance to make it at an Ivy League institution. After convincing a renowned association and her university, Assistant Professor Villareal prepares to host the association's annual Shakespeare symposium. Moreover, 2014 marks the four-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death, giving the event added mystique.
However, on the morning of the symposium's opening day, the body of a young woman is discovered drowned in the university's arboretum. But, more than that, the murderer has left a garland of flowers around her neck. A chance encounter with an employee familiar with the situation leads Villareal to conclude that this is no random act of violence, realizing that the flowers around the young woman's neck are a clear symbol from one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.
Before long, Villareal joins forces with local detectives Ryan Kelly and Sarah Choo, as well as campus officer Antonio Guerrera, to find the killer. But, it does not end there. Soon more murders follow and the four find themselves on the trail of a serial killer intent on recreating some of Shakespeare's most famous deaths. The question is, why?
"If It Were Done" is a fast-paced thriller and literary adventure for any fan of mysteries, Shakespeare, or both. It is the first of three novels in the series.
