Is it today’s celebrity culture that drives interest in finding out what William Shakespeare looked like? Yes or no, the enthusiasm for locating authentic portraits of the poet-playwright shows no sign of abating. Shakespeare scholar Katherine Duncan-Jones tells us in the lushly illustrated “Portraits of Shakespeare’’ (Bodleian Library) that there have been at least 60 fake Shakespeare portraits. She focuses her attention on critiquing three of the most widely accepted portraits. At bottom, this is a detective story. Duncan-Jones offers her own theories and challenges readers to keep searching for telling details.

JAN GARDNER