Shakespeare’s Landlord by Charlaine Harris

 

Shakespeare’s Landlord by Charlaine Harris

#1 Lily Bard

Mystery

Publisher:  Recorded Books

Published:  8.11.09

Time:  6 hours 47 minutes

Rating: 4 stars

Format: audio

Source:  library

Sellers:  Amazon

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GoodReads Synopsis:

Welcome to Shakespeare, Arkansas. Lily Bard came to the small town of Shakespeare to escape her dark and violent past. Other than the day-to-day workings of her cleaning and errand-running service, she pays little attention to the town around her. So when she spots a dead body being dumped in the town green, she's inclined to stay well away. But she was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and despite her best efforts, she's dragged into the murder case. Lily doesn't care who did it, but when the police and local community start pointing fingers in her direction, she realizes that proving her innocence will depend on finding the real killer in quiet, secretive Shakespeare.

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

After revisiting the Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series and encountering crossover character Lily Bard a couple of times, I determined that as soon as I finished that series that I was going to finally pick up the Lily Bard series and get it read.  I’ve had the whole series in paperback for years, but, instead, chose to experience it through audio version borrowed at the library.

 

The Lily Bard series is in the mystery genre in spite of those crossover appearances.  In fact, based on this first book, the series is probably more cozy mystery with a strong dose of romance drama. 

 

Like Sookie, Lily has reasons, but she’s just getting around to the romance side of her life.  Unlike Sookie, Lily’s past has a horrific event that re-shaped her and sent her running from her family and Memphis, TN home, to starting over in small town, Shakespeare, AR.  Lily lost much, but not her sense of humor-grim as it now is- because of course she took the connection of her last name to ‘The Bard’, Shakespeare, himself and had to live in this unknown town by the same same.

 

So, Lily, has established herself in Shakespeare as a non-descript cleaning lady ‘jane of all trades’ and has a solid clientele.  She sees much and keeps it to herself which her clients appreciate.  She is curious, observant, and very professional so she adjusts to her client’s foibles and needs with ease.  She knows much about them, but Lily remains a ghost of sorts keeping a distance so no one will ever learn of her past.  There are clues if anyone thought to look like her grit and determination to build strength through her daily gym workouts and her mastery of a karate form plus her distance and skeptical view of people and their motives.

 

This is why, when Lily is out on a late night walk, she sticks to the shadows and goes unobserved when she sees a mysterious figure moving a dead body.  She waits and learns that dead body was once her landlord and lived in the apartment complex next door to her house.  After that night, she notices everyone around her seems to be acting in surprising ways including herself.  And, someone knows her past and is taunting her maliciously with things left for her to find.  The romance heating up between her and her karate instructor is as troubling as the murder she now must find answers to when she is connected to the crime.

 

The narrator, Julia Gibson, was new to me, but I enjoyed listening in to her work.  From her style, take on the story, and rendering of Lily and the rest of the characters, I found she did a great job and I look forward to more of her work.

 

All in all, I appreciated this first Lily Bard mystery tale and I look forward to pressing on to the rest of the series.  If one likes, mysteries with small town Southern charm while still hitting on relevant real life elements, don’t pass this one up.

 

Author Bio:

Charlaine Harris has been a published writer for over forty years. Her first two books were standalones, followed by a long sabbatical when she was having children. Then she began the Aurora Teagarden book, mysteries featuring a short librarian (eventually adapted for Hallmark movies). The darker Lily Bard books came next, about a house cleaner with a dark past and considerable fighting skills.

Tired of abiding by the mystery rules, Harris wrote a novel about a telepathic barmaid that took at least two years to sell. When the book was published, it turned into a bestseller, and DEAD UNTIL DARK and the subsequent Sookie books were adapted in Alan Ball's "True Blood" series. At the same time, Harris began the Harper Connelly books. Harper can find the bones of the dead and see their last minute.

When those two series wound to a close, the next three books were about a mysterious town in Texas, called Midnight.

A change in publisher and editor led to Harris's novels about a female gunslinger in an alternate America, Lizbeth Rose. The Gunnie Rose books concluded with the sixth novel.

She's thinking about what to write next.

Sophia’s Bio:
Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

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