Shakespeare's Landlord

Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining read!
Review: Another of Ms. Harris's small town quiet heroines. Well written with a good pace; I liked it well enough to seek out the rest of the series.

Rating:
Summary: The beginning of a new series
Review: Charlaine Harris has created another intriguing character in Lily Bard who debuts in *Shakespeare's Landlord*. This is no cozy, with a librarian stumbling over bodies while studying true crime as her prior series began. Lily is much more scarred, literally and psychologically, and harder and more impenetrable than Aurora Teagarden. It does not take long for the reader to comprehend that there has been a major trauma in Lily's life as a result of which she has cut herself off from society. She is a college graduate who cleans houses and runs errands for people. She has no friends while knowing intimate details of many people's lives. She prowls the streets of Shakespeare at night when she cannot sleep. One night, while prowling, she sees a figure wheel a cart, hers as it happens, into the park across the street and then return, cart now empty. Curious and afraid she will be accused of involvement in some crime, she goes into the park and finds a dead body. She reports it anonymously, but she cannot stay anonymous, nor can her secret remain hiddden. The story is solid, fun to read, with very interesting people, even though I did not really care very much about the identity of the murderer. The dead man was, by all accounts, unliked, a blackmailer, a miser whom we see only through others' eyes. It is hard to have any sympathy for him and concern for "whodunit" would not make me read further. But Lily Bard intrigues the reader as she does several men in the town of Shakespeare. However, now that her secret past is known, at least by these men, will the absence of mystery make the next episode less appealing? It will be interesting to see where Ms. Harris takes Lily Bard in her next adventure

Rating:
Summary: Engaging heroine, flawed plot
Review: Don't get me wrong: I liked Lily Bard. She's strong, private, has secrets, is self-disciplined and self reliant, keeps in good physical shape and can destroy a man with a quick karate chop. Besides, her house is obsessively neat and she brings that same sense of order to the other houses she cleans for people. And I like Charlaine Harris' view of small town America, with its tawdry secrets and perversions. The town of Shakespeare is populated with people I know, and Lily Bard and I chuckled at how seriously they take themselves and their small passions. But why would anyone want to kill the landlord? He was no better or worse than any of the rest of them, and his shadowy self is not finely enough drawn in this novel to provoke even the smallest curiousity about why he was mangled and his corpse elaborately hidden in the apartment complex. Lily Bard and the society she lives in are the reason I read the book with interest: the plot is superfluous at best

Rating:
Summary: Lily Bard is a character worth knowing.
Review: I didn't get caught up in this book for the mystery. I cared so little about the mystery that I didn't try to solve it. I was too caught up with the heroine, Lily Bard. I understand how she feels. What I went through was extremely mild compared to the horror that happened to Ms. Bard, though I was so young I didn't have a name for what happened to me. I must compliment Ms. Harris for her portrayal of a former victim (a term I prefer to "survivor" because it contains both the idea that the victimhood is in the past and that the person was wronged, which "survivor" does not -- and I know English too well to be able to convince myself that I would feel "empowered" by calling myself a "survivor", thank you very much). I find Ms. Bard's feelings about her past utterly convincing. I not only have NO problem with the decision she made during her ordeal, I applaud it (and I spit on her family for their reaction)! The only thing I didn't like about this book was the fact that a separated man didn't wait until his divorce was final before having sex with a woman other than his couldn't-be-"ex"-soon-enough wife. I am getting the sequel. (Note to Ms. Harris: These days the term is "safer sex" -- condoms aren't foolproof protection. I am glad that you bother to address the topic, though. Too many writers don't.)

Rating:
Summary: Good and interesting
Review: I enjoyed this first book in the Lily Bard/Shakespeare series. The mystery is not one with too many twists and turns, but the characters, especially the protagonist, are nice to know. I have read each of the next four books and enjoyed each one a little bit more than the first.

Rating:
Summary: Good and interesting
Review: I enjoyed this first book in the Lily Bard/Shakespeare series. The mystery is not one with too many twists and turns, but the characters, especially the protagonist, are nice to know. I have read each of the next four books and enjoyed each one a little bit more than the first.

Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining read!
Review: I like the works of author Charlaine Harris a lot and this book is no exception. I enjoyed this story. I thought the plot was interesting and intriguing. I liked the characters and the even-flowing dialogue. "Shakespeare's Landlord" is a story that most mystery lovers will appreciate.

Rating:
Summary: I like this author a lot...
Review: I like the works of author Charlaine Harris a lot and this book is no exception. I enjoyed this story. I thought the plot was interesting and intriguing. I liked the characters and the even-flowing dialogue. "Shakespeare's Landlord" is a story that most mystery lovers will appreciate.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent and quick read
Review: I think Harris is an excellent writer and I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the second I've read by her. I thought Lily was a very complex, fully developed and three-dimensional character, with whom I felt an immediate empathy. The other characters are as skillfully crafted and the story was both suspenseful and exciting. I read this in one evening, so I would say it's one I couldn't put down. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent and quick read
Review: I think Harris is an excellent writer and I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the second I've read by her. I thought Lily was a very complex, fully developed and three-dimensional character, with whom I felt an immediate empathy. The other characters are as skillfully crafted and the story was both suspenseful and exciting. I read this in one evening, so I would say it's one I couldn't put down. Enjoy!