Sophia Rose Reviews: Shakespeare’s Christmas by Charlaine Harris, narrated by Julia Gibson

 

Shakespeare’s Christmas by Charlaine Harris, narrated by Julia Gibson

#3 Lily Bard

Mystery

Publisher:  Recorded Books

Published:  11.24.09

Time:  6 hours 37 minutes

Rating: 4 stars

Format: audio

Source:  library

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads 

GoodReads Synopsis: 

Lily Bard heads home for the holidays.

Lily heads to her hometown of Bartley for her estranged sister's Christmas Eve wedding. But there is something in the air besides holiday cheer—there's murder. And Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister promises to love, honor, and obey a killer.

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

A Christmas edition for a series can often take warm, glowing tones, but not for Lily Bard.  Going home for the holidays is the last thing Lily wants to do and her discomfort is great once she gets there.  Will a missing child case for Jack cross-up Lily’s sister’s wedding dreams?  And, a brutal murder is on the loose in Lily’s childhood small town ready to strike.

 

The third of Charlaine Harris’ Lily Bard series continues to deliver a strong, darkly-toned cozy mystery while main character Lily Bard takes measured steps away from her horrific past.

 

Lily left Bartley when it got too much.  She was stifling under the whole town’s knowledge that she was kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed one of her kidnappers.  Her sister’s sympathy dried up before Lily had done much recovering and all her helpless parents could do was hover.  But now, years later, Lily is slowly getting into a better place and a certain tall, handsome private detective is part of it.  However, the duty to family calls her back home for the holiday season with her sister hoping a wedding and family togetherness will heal some of the rift.

 

Bartley surprises Lily when first she and her sister stumble upon a brutal double murder, but even more surprising is Jack sharing that three of Bartley families are under suspicion in a child’s disappearance from a few years back.  One of the prime suspects is her sister’s fiancé.  Lily insists on helping with this case wanting it cleared up before the wedding and the need to be certain her sister isn’t marrying a man with a stolen child.

 

Shakespeare’s Christmas had a compelling murder mystery and old kidnapping case, but I confess to being way more interested in Lily’s return home, healing, interactions with her family, and of course, the progress on her tentative romance with Jack Leeds.  Jack and Lily both have struggles to get over so the fragility of their relationship was as suspenseful as the murder.

 

Julia Gibson glimmers and glamours in the sparkle of this Christmas-time mystery and I really love what she brings to the Lily Bard world.

 

All in all, another solid, satisfying series entry.  I think I’m coming to see these as less ‘cozy’ and just classify them as mysteries with a small-town southern-feel setting.

 

Character 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 best seller, 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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