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Summary: Advance Raves for SHAKESPEARE'S CHRISTMAS:
Review: "Charlaine Harris just keeps getting better. I adore this series." --Margaret Maron, author of HOME FIRES BURNING"A wonderful book--humor, live characters, vivid setting, and a mysterious four-year-old kidnapping. Make SHAKESPEARE'S CHRISTMAS a gift under the tree for yourself." --Barbara D'Amato, author of HARD BARGAIN
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Summary: Good story but the writing was pretty awful.
Review: I really enjoyed this third chapter in the life of Lily Bard, a cleaning woman with a bent for cleaning up murder mysteries. I find the characters so life-like and believable that I can't wait for the fourth in this series. This time out we learn more about Lily's family and get some insight into what helped form Lily into the person that she is. I really enjoyed meeting her mom and dad and sister-about to be married-Varena. The mysterious Jack Leeds is back again and involved with Lily and the kidnapping investigation. This is a cozy on the darkish side but I think cozy readers will enjoy it as much as I did.
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Summary: A Darker Side Of Cozy
Review: I really enjoyed this third chapter in the life of Lily Bard, a cleaning woman with a bent for cleaning up murder mysteries. I find the characters so life-like and believable that I can't wait for the fourth in this series. This time out we learn more about Lily's family and get some insight into what helped form Lily into the person that she is. I really enjoyed meeting her mom and dad and sister-about to be married-Varena. The mysterious Jack Leeds is back again and involved with Lily and the kidnapping investigation. This is a cozy on the darkish side but I think cozy readers will enjoy it as much as I did.
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Summary: A beautifully written and charactered series.
Review: If you haven't met Lily Bard of Shakespeare, Ak, you are in for a rare treat in the mystery genre. A victim of gang rape, coupled with a vicious knifing, Lily has reinvented herself, left home and become a cleaning lady in a small town. Now, however, she must go home for her sister's wedding and the family from whom she's become almost estranged. On her first morning home, she and her sister discover the bludgeoned bodies of a doctor and his nurse. Also in town on the case of a child abducted years before is the new love of Lily's life, Jack. One of the suspects in the kidnapping is her sister's widowed fiance. A taut, well-told tale of suspense with three dimensional characters. I would suggest that before reading this, one should read "Shakepeare's Landlord" and "Shakespeare's Champion." This different and much darker series by the author of the Aurora Teagarden books should not be missed.
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Summary: Series Has Deteriorated
Review: In the third outing featuring Lily Bard, cleaning lady extraordinaire from Shakespeare, AR, agrees to attend her sister's wedding in their home town - a town she left when her life was destroyed by a gang. Soon after arriving in town, the doctor and his nurse are killed. Then her new boyfriend arrives. And the chaos of a wedding continues around her as she investigates the murders. This series started out as an excellent, if very dark, cozy series. Lily was piecing her life back together, had become self-sufficient, and was recovering. Then, for whatever reason, the author seemed to rethink her main character and quickly evolved her into someone less attractive - less strong, less angry, just less. The author continues this trend in this entry, and this reader will not be reading any more Lily Bards. That's a shame because as Lily was originally drawn, she could have found a place in the same niche as Carol O'Connell's Mallory. Now she's just another cleaning lady in another cozy.
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Summary: murder, kidnappings, molestation - this book has it all
Review: In the third Shakespeare book featuring Lily Bard, the victim of gang-rape years earlier (and consequently murdering one of the rapists), the former future-housewife turned cleaning lady is on a visit home, to attend her sister Varena's wedding... right before Christmas. She has barely settled down in her hometown of Bartley, Arkansas, when the small town's doctor and nurse are killed... and she, along with her sister, are the first ones to find them. Sooner than later, her lover - Jack Leeds - comes to town. Being a detective, he is planning on finding out who kidnapped Summer Dawn, eight years before. Lily joins in on the investigation, planning to help Jack, since she's a native to the town. When one of three girls, who may or may not be Summer Dawn, turns out to be her sister's future husband's daughter, it becomes personal. In this exciting tale of murder, kidnapping, and some really confusing clues, the reader will be unable to put down this novel. I wasn't especially fond of the first book in the series, and picked this one up - and was pleasantly surprised. If the rest are up to the standards set by this book, there will be no way I won't be getting them.
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Summary: Fast Paced Mystery With Great Characters
Review: Lilly Bard is a very interesting character. Her life has been shaped by a brutal assault and rape when she was young. Now, at age 31, she has worked her way back to a fairly normal life. She is strong, capable, and a little prickly, but likeable. In this, the third book of the series, Lilly has returned to her hometown for her sister's wedding. Along with her boyfriend, Jack (a private investigator), she is trying to piece together several recent murders in town that may or may not be related to a child abduction eight years previously. The premise for this story is a good one and it is very well plotted, but it is the characters that make it special. I haven't read the two previous books in this series, but I didn't feel lost. In fact, the references to past events just added a little more mystery. I am looking forward to getting to know these characters better in the earlier and future books in this series.
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Summary: Fast Paced Mystery With Great Characters
Review: Lilly Bard is a very interesting character. Her life has been shaped by a brutal assault and rape when she was young. Now, at age 31, she has worked her way back to a fairly normal life. She is strong, capable, and a little prickly, but likeable. In this, the third book of the series, Lilly has returned to her hometown for her sister's wedding. Along with her boyfriend, Jack (a private investigator), she is trying to piece together several recent murders in town that may or may not be related to a child abduction eight years previously. The premise for this story is a good one and it is very well plotted, but it is the characters that make it special. I haven't read the two previous books in this series, but I didn't feel lost. In fact, the references to past events just added a little more mystery. I am looking forward to getting to know these characters better in the earlier and future books in this series.
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Summary: Great mystery with deep insight into the Bard (Lily)
Review: Lily Bard is sorry that she has to return to her hometown of Bartley, Tennessee to attend her sister's wedding. Several years ago, she was the focus of a media blitz when she was kidnapped, mutilated, and gang raped. The revulsion and pity from her friends and family drove Lily away. She has been relatively happy living in Shakespeare, Arkansas where she runs a cleaning service. When she returns to her hometown, she is pleasantly surprised to see that her lover Jack Leeds is also there. Though he has come to provide her support, he is also trying to learn if one of the local girls is actually a kidnap victim who was abducted as an infant eight years ago. Lily wants answers too because her sister is about to become the stepmother to one of the girls. SHAKESPEARE'S CHRISTMAS is a fascinating mystery because Charlaine Harris provides much insight into the head of her female protagonist. The who-done-it is interesting and well-designed, but it is Lily's ability to surmount her traumas and move on with her life that touch the reader's heart. This change is so realistically portrayed, it engages reader empathy, who will enjoy a glimpse into Lily's hometown relationships. Ms. Harris has written a wonderful novel that adds much to this top rate dark cozy. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: A great cozy with a dark edge!
Review: Once again, the complex world of Lily Bard shows that, although you can go home again, you'd better watch out what happens once you get there. This powerful third novel in the Lily Bard saga explores more of Lily's past, as well as her relationships with her family - most of whom would rather forget what happened to her. Charlaine Harris continues to entertain and enthrall us while weaving a great story. I can't wait for the 4th installment of this most excellent series.
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