susiewho's Full Review: Charlaine Harris - Shakespeare's Trollop
Shakespeare is a little town in Arkansas with a crime rate, it seems, that would make you run far and fast. Lily Bard, our heroine has moved here to escape any remnants of a vicious, brutal kidnapping and rape. She has rebuilt her life, changed her looks, become a hard, strong, loner who practices Karate with a vengeance. She's been damaged, scarred emotionally and physically. She has clawed her way back only by becoming a different being entirely. She's dyed her hair, relocated,she takes goja karate classes, works cleaning houses and avoids contact with people as best as she can. She has clawed her way back by building herself a walled persona, watchful, on guard, aggressive and ready to fight, any one, anything, anytime. She also seems to be a magnet for murders, always being the one to find the corpse and eventually the murderer.
Charlaine Harris writes in series. This is the Shakespeare series, a much harder hitting series than are her others, I find. Ms. Harris is very innovative when it comes to the plot lines, always creating convoluted, curious web like stories around her corpses. This book certainly had me wondering who the heck did the deed.
The characters are all so well developed. Lily is so strong with so many little quirks of personality. All quite understandable due to her horrific past and all very well described. Her love life is going well in this book She is smitten with Jack Leeds, a detective from a former story. They both have their little idiosyncrasies and move in and out of their emotional baggage to meet up and commit. They are quite lusty.
Lily cleans house by trade and unintentionally sleuths on the side. Her clients run the gamut from salacious old men to charming, pilars of society, and attractive young gals. She knows all their little habits and secrets since she is in their homes, cleaning up after them. This gives her a lot of insight to the characters in this plot.
Lily attracts men quite a bit, Bobo, the son of one of her clients, certain police personnel and some neighbors. Considering her prickly personality, don't come near me attitude, it's always good reading as she fends them off.
This book starts off with a body, Deedra Dean, in the woods. It happens to be one of Lily's clients, a rather promiscuous gal which leads to a lot of suspects and a lot of incriminating photos. Lily having found the body is the first to be questioned. There are many questions, many suspects and few answers until the end of this fast moving read.
If you read her books in order you get more familiar with the characters. They have quirky names for the most part, for instance Jump Farraclough, a police officer, Judge Hitchcock (not a judge) or Marshall Sedaka, her old flame and karate instructor. She describes one officer as being a narrow faced blond with down slanting tobacco colored eyes. Each character no matter how insignificant or how small apart they play is very well described.
Each book in the series has a fresh new challenging mystery. This is the fourth in the Shakespeare series. The other series include The Aurora Teagarden Series, The Southern Vampire, Sookie Stackhouse series and the Harper Connelly series. Try to read them in order, it will keep the characters straight in your mind. Even if you read them in a scattered order each book makes for very good reading.
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Shakespeare, Arkansas, is home to endless back roads, historic buildings, colorful residents--and the occasional murder. It is also home to Lily Bard,...More at HotBookSale
Mystery & Detective - General Fiction - Shakespeare, Arkansas, is home to endless back roads, historic buildings, colorful residents--and the occasion...More at Barnes and Noble
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