Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Shakespeare's Landlord
    Unavailable
    Shakespeare's Landlord
    Unavailable
    Shakespeare's Landlord
    Audiobook6 hours

    Shakespeare's Landlord

    Written by Charlaine Harris

    Narrated by Julia Gibson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    When cleaning lady and karate student Lily Bard discovers the dead body of her landlord, her plan of leading a quiet life becomes complicated. Accused of murder, she realizes that finding the true killer may be the only way to prove her innocence. Using the easy access her job gives her, Lily investigates the people of tiny Shakespeare, uncovering skeletons in closets, and ultimately, the killer…
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateDec 1, 2010
    ISBN9781407468365
    Unavailable
    Shakespeare's Landlord
    Author

    Charlaine Harris

    Charlaine Harris is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over thirty years. She was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area. She has written four series, and two stand-alone novels, in addition to numerous short stories, novellas, and graphic novels (cowritten with Christopher Golden). Her Sookie Stackhouse books have appeared in twenty-five different languages and on many bestseller lists. They’re also the basis of the HBO series True Blood. Harris now lives in Texas, and when she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously. Her house is full of rescue dogs.

    More audiobooks from Charlaine Harris

    Related to Shakespeare's Landlord

    Related audiobooks

    Thrillers For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      About The Author… Nalini Singh

      Jan 19, 2020

      About The Author… Nalini Singh
      1 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2024

      I was trying to look a little less like myselfand more like other humans, humans who belonged, so I put on a skort.Purchased in another life, when I had a husband and wrote thank-you notes and held dinner parties,the skort even had its own little poc

      6 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Sep 1, 2022

      First prize 10 and under Tang Li, age 9 Palmetto Bay, FL My name is Anisa. I was in Hawaii on vacation. I enjoyed sipping refreshing drinks, overlooking the turquoise ocean, and dancing with others, before I overheard that the priceless Fire Ring wa

      10 min read

    • Article

      Estella’s Fate

      May 17, 2023

      Estella’s Fate
      7 min read

    • Article

      Estella’s Fate

      May 17, 2023

      Estella’s Fate
      7 min read

    • Article

      AN EXCERPT FROM The First Line of Dante’s ‘Inferno’

      Dec 1, 2020

      Early forties, tall, self-possessed. Hiking in the woods in search of her missing sister. A young park ranger, late twenties. Pretty. Slim. Strong. The play is formatted like prose; however, it is intended for performance. If actors simply perform th

      15 min read

    • Article

      Intelligent Creatures

      Jul 6, 2023

      Intelligent Creatures
      19 min read

    • Article

      Dark Tales

      Dec 2, 2021

      Dark Tales
      6 min read

    • Article

      It Happened To Me…

      Jan 26, 2023

      It Happened To Me…
      7 min read

    • Article

      Speedboat

      Mar 24, 2022

      Nobody died that year. Nobody prospered. There were no births or marriages. Seventeen reverent satires were written – disrupting a cliché and, presumably, creating a genre. That was a dream, of course, but many of the most important things, I fi nd,

      14 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Family Plot

      May 7, 2020

      The Family Plot
      10 min read

    • Article

      Devotional

      Sep 1, 2021

      Devotional
      11 min read

    • Article

      Above Santa Cruz

      Jul 2, 2019

      Above Santa Cruz
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Buck Stops Here

      Apr 29, 2020

      The Buck Stops Here
      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      I want to write a poem about abortion.I’m driving to Rural King to get a key cut.I’m in rural Indiana. Then I’m in rural Michigan.I’m in Michiana. I’m driving to Niles.I pass the neon Pegasus sign outside a gas station,always off. I pass a man panhan

      5 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Mar 4, 2024

      Security confiscated the bracelet I’d slipped into my wallet but not the thin black sweater I wore as I walked out of Macy’s. The sweater still had its price tag and was so soft it soothed whoever was whispering “more, more” in my ears adorned with s

      4 min read

    • Article

      The First Day: One man’s walk to his own cremation.

      Aug 7, 2014

      The fog was thick when I left my bedsit and ventured out alone into the barren and murky city. I was heading for what used to be called a crematorium and these days is known as a funeral parlor. I had received a notice instructing me to arrive by 9 a

      15 min read

    • Article

      It Happened to Me…

      Sep 7, 2023

      It Happened to Me…
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Beyoğlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra

      Jun 8, 2021

      Selim the half-wit hoarded everything—that was the story they told me my first day in waste management. Selim had lost his wife, and I guess everyone figured he took up hoarding as a way to fill the void. It started out with stuff his wife might have

      24 min read

    • Article

      Walking On TheWild Side…

      Jul 17, 2023

      Walking On TheWild Side…
      3 min read

    • Article

      Averted Vision

      Sep 1, 2022

      Averted Vision
      25 min read

    Reviews for Shakespeare's Landlord

    3.5/5

    621 ratings48 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This was the first of the Lily Bard mysteries. Lily is a tough, strong woman with a traumatic past that lives in the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. One night she takes a walk and witnesses someone stealing a cart that belongs to her. This person walks into the park across from her house, dumps whatever is in the cart, and then returns the cart to Lily's house. Lily investigates and finds the body of a local man who owns properties in town. The mystery is, of course, who killed this man? And can Lily, who has kept her past a secret until now, continue to live in town without everyone knowing her history?These are perfect books for the summer: quick, but intense where they need to be!
    • 5/5
      Cleaning woman Lily Bard is trying to build a new life for herself in Shakespeare, Arkansas, after some traumatic events elsewhere. She keeps herself busy with her housecleaning jobs, body building and martial arts. Even so, some nights she just can't sleep because of the memories.One night, she discovers someone she doesn't recognize hauling something to the arboretum across the street from her house. She notices because they are using her garbage can cart! After they leave and go into the nearby apartment building, Lily decides to investigate. She finds the body of Pardon Albee who owns the apartment building and sold Lily her house. Not wanting to get involved, she makes an anonymous phone call the Police Chief Claude Friedrich.She doesn't want to get involved, but she cleans for most of the residents of the apartment building among others in town and her curiosity is engaged. But she does more than investigate. She's also beginning a romantic relationship with her almost-divorced karate instructor and having confrontations with a drunk who lives in the apartment building and is supposed to clean the church Lily is also hired to clean. I enjoyed getting to know Lily and gradually learning about her traumatic past. Julia Gibson did a good job with all the Southern accents and also did a good job with the pacing of the story.
    • 5/5
      This is my second reading of this series. I still enjoy it just as much or more as I did the first time.
    • 4/5
      I think I've read this book before... it seems so darn familiar. but I'm willing to read the rest of the series, to see if the rest are as good!
    • 3/5
      I'm on a mystery kick and this book satisfied that. It was a quick and short read and enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      Shakespeare's Landlord
      4 Stars

      Working as a housekeeper in the sleepy town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, Lily Bard only wants a life of peace and quiet. Unfortunately, chaos and turmoil rain down when she witnesses a body disposal in the local park and nasty gifts begin arriving on her doorstep.

      Not only is Charlaine Harris a new to me author (yes, I am one of the few who has yet to read Sookie Stackhouse), but cozy-mysteries are not my usual fare. Consequently, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Ms. Harris’s writing is very appealing and this was a highly enjoyable listen.

      Lily is a remarkable heroine. While her independent spirt and tough-as-nails personality might not appeal to all readers, to me her resilience is admirable. Lily is a true survivor and her prickly surface conceals a deep vulnerability as well as an intense loneliness. Although she begins to come out of her shell in this book, it is obvious that it will take a great deal of time and effort for her to open up to others completely.

      The secondary cast comprised of the small town residents each with their own quirks, foibles and secrets is particularly well-developed, and it is fun to follow the suspects and clues to the mystery along with Lily.

      The one weak point is the romance. Don’t get me wrong, Lily definitely needs some love in her life, but her choice of beau is not all that satisfying and there are better candidates available.

      On a final note, Julia Gibson's narration is very good. Each of the characters have distinct personalities and she manages to convey the small town atmosphere very well. One small nitpick is the length of the gap between passage sections.

      All in all, an entertaining story with engaging characters and I look forward to continuing with the series.
    • 3/5
      Just about managed to enjoy it towards the end, but definitely not enough to want to read the rest of this series. Shame.
    • 2/5
      No supes here, so I suspect fans of Ms. Harris's Sookie Stackhouse / TrueBlood work may be a little disappointed, as this amateur sleuth mystery seemed downright dull by comparison. I'd liken it to a Miss Marple mystery, except much less clever and enthralling than Agatha Christie would ever have allowed.
    • 2/5
      This book is about a women who is hiding herself in the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. She finds the dead body of her former land lord in a park and calls the police anonymously, not wanting to blow her cover. She soon realizes the suspicions are turning to her and in order to save herself needs to find the murderer.

      I have to be honest, I am not much of mystery fan. I know this, but, I do love Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse and Harper Connelly books so I decided to try this one as well. The story line was ok, but the narration and writing of the story seemed impersonal to me at times, and I just could not pick up a flow and get in to it. The book itself is small, only about 214 pages, so it didn't take too long, but actually reading it, it felt like an eternity.
    • 3/5
      At first I was disappointed in this book because I have read Charlaine Harris before and I love the Sookie books. I was a bit sad that Lily's book lacks much of the humor found in the Sookie series. It is much more serious and I found Lily a bit unlikeable at first because she is trying to keep to herself and hide so much.I liked her a bit better as the book continued on but she wasn't someone I could imagine befriending or hanging out with.The best thing about the book was the cast of interesting secondary characters which is something I think Harris excels out in general.The mystery was fairly good until the conclusion. Harris gave enough clues about who did it that I didn't feel like it was out of the blue but I did feel like it was disappointing and anti climactic.I also didn't care for the love triangle in the book. I thought it felt unrealistic. Lily, who up to this point has wanted nothing to do with men suddenly is attracted to two very different ones, each with his own issues. As a casual mystery read it was okay but it wasn't something I would go crazy to recommend to a friend either. I also feel like fans of the Sookie mysteries will not love Lily Bard. She is just a much darker and less humorous character than Sookie.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books and decided to try out another series of hers. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. This is the first book in the Lily Bard Mystery series.Lily has a past that she doesn't want anyone to know about. She lives a quiet life in Shakespeare, Arkansas. She works as a cleaning lady and takes a martial arts class. Lily also has trouble sleeping at night and this is when her life changes.There is a murder in Shakespeare and Lily is the only witness to the disposing of the body. Now she starts wondering who would commit murder. As Lily and the Chief of Police talk it out they both start to come to there own conclusions.
    • 2/5
      Critically, the Mystery bookends: murder at opening, closed at ending. Nothing in between. However, Harris's thoroughly great characterisation of Lily Bard, artfully demonstrating the effects of a traumatic past - her bloody and brutal gang rape - on her present. How she was able to leave her family and move to a town where she could start afresh, no one knowing her history and treating her differently because of it. Her bravery, difficulties with PTSD, and her determination to never be found vulnerable to attack again by learning self-defense / martial arts. Dealing with the challenges in Shakespeare's Landlord made me respect Lily as a person and as a survivor of horrific circumstances that most would struggle to overcome in order to return to some semblance of normality.

      That being said, I don't think I'll be continuing with this series as I've read a few reviews and found there's a love triangle - I'm not going there, sorry.
    • 3/5
      This book has made me add another shelf.... It has to be something to do with REPEATING THE SAME GODDAMN WORD OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!! GET A BLOODY THESAURUS!!! Stop using Rumbled after Claude Friedrich speaks! JUST STOP!!!!

      ahhhhh.... now I've gotten past that... Yeah this book was a bit of alright. Nothing too amazing. Not my favourite mystery, not my favourite Charlaine Harris books.

      The characters were good, though Charlaine tends to write in A LOT of characters so ideally, if you've got a bad memory for names like I do, then you need a notebook handy so you know who's who. I tended to lose the plot sometimes.
      Lily was the best character because she was described in more depth. Makes sense seeing as it was from her viewpoint and the whole dark past was an interesting 'surprise' - I put that in speechmarks because it sounds a little too nice for describing just what a horrible thing she went through. But she pulled through it and the whole going to martial arts classes and building up mental, emotional and physical strength was moving and a nice touch. Girl power is awesome.

      The killer didn't surprise me when I read it but I never suspected them to be fair. So it caught me out on that one but honestly, I think my usual good killer detector was flattened by the avalanche of information that was being puked up in my face. I just couldn't wade through all that to get to the point, which was the KILLER not everyone's daily habits in the whole town. It was a little O.T.T but some of it was interesting and gave it a realistic edge that Charlaine does so well, even in the midst of vampires and ghosts and weres etc.

      It was good, but not great. Enough for me to want to read the next books but not enough for me to be itching with excitement to pick up the book. I can afford to leave the next book for now and move onto something different, coming back when I feel in the mood for it.

      Overall a good read, just make sure you concentrate hard. Who knows, I'm probably just having a slow week. Oh but not slow enough to miss the grammar errors that popped up every now and again. The editing seemed rushed and that didn't surprise me when I know how busy the author is, but it did when I know the quality of her work. Still I won't hold it against her. She's only human after all.... or is she? :D MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

      *Clears throat awkwardly* .... um yeah...

      3 out of 5 stars for you book.
    • 4/5
      In response to the whole series:

      This series may be my favorite out of all of Harris's books. In the Lily Bard series, the mysteries are always clever and the characters are well developed. They are fun reads but they also have a Very Heavy subject matter and at times are all together alarming. I actually liked that because it made the series more substantial than your run-of-the mill mysteries. I am very glad that Harris stopped when she did with these books. I was left wanting more. You should always want more at the end of a series. It seems like there are so many *forced* serials out there right now but this is definitely not one of them. Each book is good - no fillers - and the overarching storyline matures with each installment of the series.
    • 5/5
      I have one piece of advice to anybody interested in Shakespeare's Landlord: buy it, borrow it, whatever, just read it as soon as possible. Put it at the top of your pile. You'll be glad you did.

      Lily Bard is one of the most compelling and, frankly, admirable heroines I have ever come across. She's got a very dark past, and from the very first page it's clear how much sheer will it has taken for her to make a new life for herself. Lily is independent, blunt, ass-kicking, solitary, and smart as hell.

      The Shakespeare books are mysteries, and they're good ones, but the reason to read them is to watch Lily Bard's character grow and change. Charlaine Harris has a tremendous ability to infuse the most quotidien events with incredible depth, a true master of the 'show don't tell' school of writing. Her characters are both ordinary and monumental, and she writes about the South in a way that (really!) bears comparison to Faulkner and Toni Morrison.

      The Shakespeare series in particular picks up on a lot of very delicate issues and tackles them head on: questions of race, class, and gender end up tangled in the crimes Lily has to solve. For women, in particular, thinking about how Lily has changed in response to her own past can be a real eye-opener.
    • 3/5
      Another good candy read from Harris, much like her Aurora Teagarden series, but the heroine is tougher & scarred. It's a murder mystery set in a small southern town. Entertaining. I plan to read the next.
    • 4/5
      It's about time I read the first installment in this series! I liked learning more of the background information, and probably would've enjoyed the later books in this series even more if I'd read this one first.

      I continue to like Lily Bard as the main character--intelligent, strong (in more ways than one), and quick on her feet.
    • 4/5
      Charlaine Harris does a good job of creating interesting stories and complex characters. I am looking forward to reading more in the series.
    • 2/5
      The characters weren't terribly likable, so not very relate-able, so the book was not as enjoyable as it could have been. Still moved right through it so worth picking up the next book.
    • 5/5
      Charlaine Harris has written 4 distinct and unique series of books. I hope she writes a fifth and a sixth and a seventh and a ... you get the idea. The Lily Bard, Shakespeare series --in my humble opinion -- rides head and shoulders above the others. Considering how much I've enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse, Vamps Galore tales that's saying a lot. Ironically most readers have never heard of Lily Bard. No doubt one of life's little bizarre and unexplainable quirks.
    • 3/5
      Lily Bard has a past. She's been living in Shakespeare, ARK for 3 years, working to clean the homes of many of the residents of this little town. Trouble threatens to expose what she's hiding when she witnesses a hooded figure wheeling a mysterious bundle into the nearby park. When she goes to investigate, she finds the area landlord dead.This was a simple little cozy. More time was spent on Lily and her relationships with the town residents than maybe was necessary. The main characters and secondary characters do need a bit more development but since this is the first in the series, there's time. The mystery was light but entertaining. Hope for improvement in future installments.
    • 3/5
      The Book: Shakespeare’s LandlordAuthor: Charlaine HarrisFormat: HardbackGenre: MysteryWord Count/Page Count: ~60,000 words / 214 pagesStars: Two-and-a-half out of fiveWhere It Came From: Local Library. (Side note: I love how I can put books on hold online now, and then when I get a notification e-mail about available books, I can just swing by and pick them up after work. It’s a beautiful system.)The Review: As an overqualified cleaning lady, Lily Bard seems like the best candidate to investigate the murder of the landlord at the nearby apartment building. She has access to practically all of the major (and minor) hot spots in the little hamlet of Shakespeare, Arkansas and she is privy to nearly everyone’s dirty laundry (pun fully intended). And when, during one of her mysterious late night walks, she witnesses someone using her garbage can cart to dispose of a body, she is immediately drawn into the case.With a penchant for the martial arts and a fanaticism for privacy, Lily Bard (get it? Bard…Shakespeare…yeah, I was tickled too) is a fantastic heroine. She’s tough as a one-eyed alley cat and a great role model for women’s empowerment. Of course, her social skills and mental status leave much to be desired but, given her history (which I won’t spoil for you), I think most readers will find this acceptable, if not commendable. I’ll be totally honest, I wasn’t hooked on this book like I have been with the others I’ve read this week. Maybe it was overshadowed by Graceling (look for that review later this week), or maybe I’m just not a mystery reader. I was a little worried, when I saw how small the book was, that there could be a fully fleshed out story inside. But there is quite a bit contained within a small package: a murder mystery, sordid revelations about the town’s history and the people in it, and even a minor stalking/harassment subplot, with, of course, a dash or two of romance thrown in. My major qualm was that the ending felt a bit rushed, wrapping up (mostly) in only a couple pages. In typical Charlaine Harris fashion, the reader is left with just enough loose ends to continue on Lily’s story in a sequel. And there are sequels, several of them. However, only time will tell if I make it onto the next book in the Lily Bard series.
    • 4/5
      Amazon.com’s synopsis – from Publisher’s Weekly! – made me snort; I thought PW was highly regarded, with good reason? I’m not impressed: “While on a late-night job” – no, she wasn’t; Lily sees “a furtive figure placing large plastic garbage bags in the local park” – not really, no. “Realizing, however, that her fingerprints on the body of the dead man might make her a suspect” – I don’t think so, but I’ll double check. The facts are, in fact, these: Lily Bard, living in the small Arkansas town of Shakespeare, is an insomniac, and on this night when she can’t sleep she goes for a walk. It’s not as astoundingly stupid as it would be for most women, this walking about the town in the wee hours: Lily has been studying martial arts for some time, and she’s very, very good – at both self-defense and wandering unnoticed. And she’s highly motivated. Heading home from her ramble, she sees a person in a raincoat going along with a garbage trolley – *her* trolley – and knows something’s up; she follows, lurks while the figure disappears into the little park and returns with the empty trolley, and then goes in to see what was dumped. Who, that is: inside the garbage bags is Lily’s landlord.She wants nothing to do with it, but now she’s handled the garbage bags – which she disposes of – and is afraid there might be evidence on the trolley, and yes, perhaps she was afraid of having left trace or fingerprints on the body – oh, that’s right: her main concern wasn’t so much self-preservation, but that kids would find the corpse in the morning. After a debate, she makes an anonymous call to the police chief about the location of her landlord.There are a lot of mysteries out there in which the protagonist, an ordinary(ish) person, decides she has to investigate a murder in order to clear her own name; this one was unique. Yes, Lily is worried that she may be dragged into the investigation – but her primary reason for trying to make this all go away as quickly as possible is that she has had very good reason to start fresh, very good reason to do everything possible to make her past go away, and a murder investigation on her literal doorstep will jeapordize the privacy she needs.Although she had an excellent college education and was, Before, on a business fast track, she now does full-time what she once did for extra money: she cleans. It’s a satisfying job, with a beginning and middle and end and visible results when it’s complete, and the work is solitary, under the radar. But it also puts her in contact with a good-sized segment of the town population, her clients, all of whom are almost as interested in questioning her about the murder of her landlord as she is in finding out what they can tell her.As she tries to work this disruption into her well-regulated reconstructed life, it’s as though the one rock dropped into her pond sends ripples out that change everything. The police chief, a nodding-terms neighbor, becomes a figure in her life – exactly what kind of figure is yet to be seen. Her past becomes, if not common knowledge, known to some – including someone who tries to disable her by using it to leave her horrid messages. Lily’s karate instructor, newly separated from his wife, becomes a bigger part of her life – much bigger. The murder investigation knocks everything askew, alters just about everything in her purposely stagnant life – and as the book ends it looks like this, one of her greatest fears, just might turn out to be for the good.Normally something like the whole Shakespeare/Bard thing would cause traumatic eye-rolling, but this had an excellent explanation: Lily needed a new place to live, opened up a map, and figured Shakespeare was a logical place for her – based on nothing other than the consonance of names. (Only thing is … there may be a flaw of reasoning here, which isn’t so very bad as it can be attributed to the character rather than the author: Lily was trying to leave her past behind, but does not change her name, and goes to a place where her name is more memorable than in other places … )I like Lily. I don’t love her, or any of the other characters; the reserve she maintains with everyone around her carries over to the reader in the first-person narrative. But despite the horrors of her past the book never becomes a pity party; she has dealt with it all in every way she knew how, and now the best way she can find to cope is to lock it away. She has a personality, and a sense of humor, and she’s a fascinating character to spend some time with; and I like and believe the people around her (though some of her clients suffer from the same PITA From Hell Syndrome that so many of Goldy’s clients have in the Diane Mott Davidson novels I’ve been reading – the seemingly pver-the-top bitchiness or thoughtlessness which I, unfortunately, know is not impossible in a customer. I look forward to the rest of the series, and finding out where all the pieces will fit into her adjusted life.
    • 4/5
      I've been on a bit of a Harris binge recently and I've just finished this series. I have to say, although all her protagonists are outwardly very different (barmaid vs cleaner vs librarian vs body hunter) they all speak with the same voice somehow. This isn't a criticism entirely - after all, if you enjoy one of Harris's series, you will probably enjoy them all, but it can be a little confusing when you have to remind yourself which heroine is speaking.Lily Bard is great fun, she's a fitness fanatic (even made me consider exercising myself - not a normal outcome from a book...) and she's an accidental heroine like Aurora and Sookie. Death just seems to follow her around and she becomes very proficient at dealing with it all whilst having a love life (like Aurora, Harper and Sookie again!)If you enjoy the True Blood books then give these a try. The omnibus is an easy way to get them all althought it is very heavy to carry around.
    • 4/5
      This is the first of a dark but “cozy” mystery series by the author of the Sookie Stackhouse books that is set in Shakespeare, Arkansas. The main protagonist, Lily, wanted to pick up and start her life over, and settled on this town because her last name is Bard.Lily, thirty-one, was the victim of a sensational kidnap, slashing, and rape case in Memphis four years previously. She now seeks a quiet life where she hopes she can live anonymously. She cleans houses, does errands for the elderly, and takes self-defense classes three times a week. She works out at both a gym and at home, trying to dispel some of her anger and fear, and to become someone who could never again be successfully attacked by anyone. At night, she takes long walks before she can go to sleep without frightening dreams.When Lily, on one of her walks, sees a body dumped in the park close to her house, she fears that telling the police could bring too much attention to her and result in everyone finding out about her past. Thus, she decides to try to solve the crime herself, and of course, almost gets killed in the process. But in addition, she finds she can actually get close to a man again, as she begins tentative relationships both with her teacher of goju karate, and with the chief of police.Evaluation: This is the first in a series of books about Lily Bard, whom Harris portrays with a keen and compassionate sense of the psychology of victims of sexual abuse crimes. Like other women in Harris’s books, Lily is tough but eminently likeable. Neither violence nor sex is portrayed with gratuitous details, and in spite of some dark aspects, this book feels light and warm. It also has a full complement of the eminently realistic eccentric characters with whom Harris peoples her books. Reading a book by Charlaine Harris is like meeting with your favorite neighbor in a small Southern town over coffee and cookies in her kitchen and having a cozy chat with lots of juicy gossip. I look forward to reading other books in the series.
    • 4/5
      liked lily she is cleans house,solves murders overcome a lot of trials. does learn karate and weight lifting she does get hurt a lot
    • 4/5
      Harris is well known for her vampire series, a genre I avoid. I took a chance on this book based almost solely on the title and found myself liking the protagonist's forthright manner. Her words and actions aren't boringly predictable, and I'll read more of the Shakespeare saga.
    • 2/5
      First of all, forget old Willie; the title comes from Shakespeare, Arkansas, where our story takes place. The landlord in question is the murder victim. The protagonist is Lily Bard, a standoffish housecleaner with a dark past, whose only hobbies appear to be working out at the gym, taking martial arts classes, and obsessing over whether or not people have learned her secrets. When she happens to see the body being transported using her garbage cart one dark evening she quickly discovers that she must find the killer in order to prevent her secrets from being blasted all over town. As this is the first book in a series, we are introduced to tons of characters and even a couple of potential love interests, neither of which are particularly interesting. The cover art made me think it would be a touch more light-hearted, but in the end it's a somewhat humdrum murder mystery with just barely enough suspense to keep the reader involved. The ending was too predictable to justify the lead-up, but I won't say that I necessarily saw it coming from a mile away either. It was fine as a quick gym read, keeping my attention while I was on the stationary bike, but I won't be reading any more in the series.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed that the main character, Lily Bard, was indeed flawed, both physically and emotionally. She presented a strong female lead, and was intelligent, as well as physically able to defend herself. I did, though, feel that Lily's past came up a bit too often. I realize that what happened to her was a traumatic experience, but she didn't need to keep referencing it time and time again. Yes, the character is emotionally scarred - we realize that, stop rubbing it in our faces. I also felt that the romance was a little rushed, and not very well thought out and developed. The story itself took me a while to get into, and I prefer it when the mysteries are those I can unravel in my head. This book seemed to meander a little in way of plot, but I still finished it in just under a day. This is the first book I've read by Charlaine Harris, and I do admire her writing - it was quite enjoyable. I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I would recommend reading it, because the entertainment factor is definitely there.
    • 5/5
      First book I've read by Charlaine Harris. Love the town Shakespeare; love, love Lily Bard and all the characters of Shakespeare. Can't wait to read all of the Lily Bard Mysteries