A Lily Bard Mystery (Lily Bard Mysteries) - Shakespeare's Landlord

Charlaine Harris produces stylish well written books that provide the reader with can't put down mysteries. In book one of the Shakespeare series the heroine is Lily Bard. Once again Charlaine has created a character who is easy to like, sympathise with and cheer for. Thank you Ms Harris, long may you continue to bring happiness to your devoted readers.

This writer was suggested by someone reading my work in progress (a writer they liked and enjoyed). The main heroine of the book was a victim of a heinous rape which I felt was an unnecessary element to the story, and more information than I cared to know. When I read a mystery, I expect SOME clues so I get that AH HA moment when I reach the last couple of pages, but that was not the case.

I did love the writing style of Charlaine Harris, and her ability to weave a yarn.

I love Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series, so I thought I'd see what this one was like & surprisingly enjoyed it. Great easy read with good characters & I didn't guess who did it halfway through like I usually do. Will definately continue with this series.

Easy, quick and interesting read. Can't wait to finish the next book in the series! Lily is a very interesting character and the book is very well written. Kind of reminds me of the Nancy Drew mysteries I read as a kid.

Kinda like eating mediocre movie theater popcorn. Not really satisfying or tasty but I finished it anyway. I think Charlaine Harris should just keep turning out Sookie stories... we'll all still buy them.

This is the only series by Charlaine Harris I haven't read. I don't think she likes many of her protagonists. I had to make myself read to the end of the book. Not sure if I will continue with this series.

Sorry Charlaine, as much of a Sookie fan as I am (I have been with you since the beginning with that series) these books are... horrible. I ordered the first two and it was all I could do to keep reading and finish. After the first one, I was dismayed that I had already bought the second. Out of desperation (I had nothing else) I ended up reading the second book. BLECH!

You are funny and so witty in your Sookie Stackhouse books. All of the characters are great... but these are just not good.

As a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series, I thought it wise to delve into one of Charlaine Harris' other series. After reading other reviews of Shakespeare's Landlord, I decided to give the Lily Bard series a try. In a nutshell, I was really disappointed with this book. It seems to me that a lot of the book is filled with "filler" (e.g. listing every ingredient in Lily's weekly cooking extravaganza) just to take up space. Sure, Lily is a gutsy girl who overcame a horrible past, but she really doen't have much substance. While reading, I kept thinking that surely things must get better....Nope! I got to the end and wondered, why did Charlaine Harris even bother writing this ho-hum book? Aha!...she wrote it to have sequel upon sequel upon sequel published...maybe in hopes that readers would buy the whole series before they read the first book! Sorry... I won't be going on to the next in the series. I just don't care about Lily or any of the other characters...sorry, again!

I've read both the Sookie and Conelly series and love them, but Lily Bard was just plain boring to me. I'm a fast reader and it took almost a week to finish this book (which is so not me). I actually started reading and finished another book in between. It moved at a very slow pace, and characters just weren't that interesting. I probably won't buy the next book.

This is my first book by Charlaine Harris. Maybe it was the wrong one to start with, but I have definitely been turned off by this author. Even though the mystery was somewhat interesting and the writing was fairly good, the mystery was cleared-up so quickly in the last couple of pages, it was a bit shocking. I also did not expect to encounter the sex scenes that were in the book....definitely NOT a cozy mystery. Not my type at all and won't be ordering any more of this series. Will have to read reviews of her other series very carefully before ever buying a book by this author again.

I have read all of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries and liked them very much. I ordered the first book in this series hoping I'd like it and want to read the others. I'm about half way through it and won't finish it. If she wanted to write something "darker" o.k. but there is no need to make it so sickening that one will have nightmares thinking about what happened to her in her past. And, if all that happened to her, why on earth would she go roaming around her neighborhood alone in the middle of the night. And why would she not call the police when she sees someone dispose of a body but actually interfere with the crime scene by removing the trash bag. Isn't it a crime to interfere with a crime scene and destroy evidence. And, what was her motive in doing that. And, if she is so protective of her sad story, why does she dump it on the first person who asks nicely. Sorry, but I read mysteries for entertainment not to court nightmares and not to think the heroine is behaving not only badly but illegally. This one goes in the trash.

I love Ms. Harris's Sookie Stackhouse and Harper Connelly series, but this one is awful. I only read the one book and didn't even finish it. The protagonist is a deeply damanged person and not someone I want to read about. I have heard that Ms. Harris decided not to write any more of this series after a few books. Good choice.

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.

I read this book in order to count it for Arkansas in my US state challenge. I enjoyed it and give it 4 out of 5 stars. The author uses a familiar formula: A private citizen, in this case, Lily Bard, cleaning lady, is suspected of murder and decides to solve the murder herself. The subtitle is "Introducing Amateur Sleuth Lily Bard." Lily Bard runs a 1 woman cleaning/errand service in the small town of Magnolia, Arkansas. She witnesses something suspicious, and discovers a dead body. She doesn't call the police. She calls the police chief anonymously.
This is a traditional mystery, where the killer is not revealed until near the end. Lily puts it together by assembling a time line of where all the possible suspects were at the time of the murder. I did not suspect the murderer until the end.
I should warn you that there a brutal gang rape scene that is central to one of the characters outlook.
This is book 1 in the series of 5. I will read more as I like the series.

Rather a standard cozy mystery, where someone in a small apartment building must have killed the landlord. The main character, Lily Bard, is herself a victim of a past horrible crime and I really thought that was just a distraction from the mystery itself. Despite severe physical and emotional scarring, Lily seems to have two potential and one actual boyfriends, which seems to be most of the eligible men in the small town of Shakespeare. The mystery itself was not much of a challenge if you worked through the timing and alibis of the building’s tenants. Overall, not the author’s best work. This is the first in five Lily Bard mysteries and I don’t think I will bother with the others. Overall, a disappointment from the author of the Sookie Stackhouse series, which I really enjoy.

Though a "True Blood" fan, this was my first time reading Charlaine Harris, and (admittedly) I probably started here because the premise of this series seemed so intriguing. Lily Bard is a "lone wolf" - a single woman of about thirty who lives by and keeps to herself in her newly-adopted town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. She cleans houses for a living, is quiet and makes no friends ... and one late night on the way home, spots a furtive figure sneaking into a park across the street from her building, pushing the large trash can she keeps under her carport. As she watches, the unidentifiable figure dumps something in a huge trash bag there, then returns the can empty - and when Lily checks out the bag, she finds the body of her former landlord from next door. As Lily starts poking around, we not only learn about her neighbors and the tenants of the murdered man's building, but also the horrifying reason behind why Lily keeps to herself, trusts no one, and is obsessed with learning self-defense. While by no means a typical one-dimenstional "cozy" mystery (in fact, most of the negative reviews you will read of this title tend to be from people who thought it was, and take exception with both author and Lily with what amounts to the reader's errror), Harris has instead crafted both a story and especially heroine/detective who, though rather solemn, comes off strong, complex and wholly three-dimensional on the page.

Shakespeare's Landlord is book 1 in a new series by Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse series.

Lily Bard harbors the secrets of a horrible past. A past so bad that she moves from town to town to avoid getting close with anyone, lest they find out about her. When she discovers the dead body of her landlord wrapped in plastic her life of solitude becomes anything but. As the town comes together to figure out what happened, Lily becomes a suspect, her past is revealed, and a romance blossoms - not all at the same time, of course. Lily also becomes the target of some pretty sinister deeds. Now it's up to Lily to try and figure out what happened to her landlord before whoever murdered him picks her next.

Lily is a very closed off, bland character. She's quite abrasive throughout the book and when you find out about her past you understand why. It doesn't really make her character anymore enjoyable, though. The story itself is well written; the plot is solid and they murder mystery isn't easily figured out. I just couldn't really get comfortable with Lily - and it's not because of her background. I was able to empathize with her but I never really felt like she was written in a way that any readers would enjoy her character. Is she strong? Yes. Is she resourceful? Definitely! Is she traumatized, making her extremely cautious? Absolutely! Is her dialogue with everyone in book enjoyable? Not so much. She does manage a few witty remarks but all in all, I found I like reading about the other characters more.

I'm undecided if I will continue with the series or not. I own this book but not any others in the series. If I decide to continue, I'll get them from the local library. There just isn't any room for a lackluster book on my shelves.

(I purchased a copy of this book from a bookstore. The opinions expressed are my own.)

This is the first "Lily Bard Mystery". It is also the first book written by Charlaine Harris that I have read, because I got the book for free. The only previous experience that I have with Harris is from watching True Blood. Anyway, Lily Bard is a cleaning woman with a tragic past who decides to solve the murder of her landlord. I would assume that she solves other murders in the other Lily Bard Mysteries, although it's not her job. I actually found this book to be pretty entertaining, although I'm not a mystery buff.

Shakespeare's Landlord (1996) is the first mystery novel in the Lily Bard series. It is set in Shakespeare, Arkansas, a small town rather distant from any cities. It has crime and a police department to deter and investigate such crimes.

In this novel, Lily Bard is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, who has come to Shakespeare to get away from her past. She had worked for a cleaning firm in Memphis and decided that cleaning houses and doing other housekeeping chores would be less stressful. She has been taking karate from a local sensei for the past two years.

Claude Friedrich is Chief of Police in Shakespeare. He was originally from Shakespeare, but had worked for many years in the Little Rock police department. The stress led him to apply for an opening as Chief in Shakespeare and he has been there ever since.

Pardon Albee is the owner of the Shakespeare Garden Apartments. He had sold Lily her house when she came to Shakespeare. She lives right next to the apartment building.

In this story, Lily often walks around town when her memories start to bother her. One night, she notices someone moving something into the park across from her house. That person is using her garbage cart to cary the load.

Lily watches the unknown person enter the park and come out a short while later with the empty cart. The person returns the cart to its proper place behind her house and leaves the scene. Lily crosses the street to enter the park.

She finds a body encased within two garbage bags. She pulls out her flashlight and examines the body. It is Pardon and is thoroughly dead.

Lily removes the garbage bags with her fingerprints and leaves the body in the park. After returning home, she starts worrying about some child finding the body. So she calls Claude Friedrich and tells him that a body has been dumped in the park.

The next day, Lily visits Mrs. Hofstettler. Marie asks if she noticed the excitement within the park. Police cars and an ambulance had kept her awake for hours.

Then Marie asks Lily to turn on the radio to find out what had happened in the park. As Lily is doing some light housekeeping, they hear the news about Pardon. Naturally, Lily already knows about it, but Marie is rather agitated.

Marie had paid her rent to Pardon the day before, so she asks Lily to call the police and offer her recall of the events. Claude arrives and Marie asks Lily to sit in during the questioning. Then Marie asks Lily to explain a point or two.

Lily is afraid that Claude will recognize her voice, but he gives no indication of doing so. But he later mentions Memphis to her, so she knows that he has recalled her story. When she asks him, Claude states that he had remembered her name from the newspaper stories.

Claude has received a copy from the Memphis police of her casefiles. When small items begin to show up that remind her of the case, Lily decides that someone in the Shakespeare police has read those files. Clause puts a stop to the rumors, but the word has already leaked out.

This tale leaves Lily in the unenviable position of having to solve the Albee murder. She starts listening to conversations about the killing and putting the pieces together. Meanwhile, Claude is also working on the case and even provides her with certain information.

This series has obvious differences from the Aurora Teagarden series, including the martial arts expertise of this heroine. But the people and relationships are much the same. In some respects, however, the heroine's backstory more resembles that of Sookie Stackhouse.

This story has several unfortunate events happening to Lily. The next installment -- Shakespeare's Champion -- relates more adventures by this heroine. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Harris fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of murder investigations, small town society, and abused -- but recovering -- women.

-Bill Jordin

Shakespeare's Landlord was just okay. Lily had something horrible happen to her and now she tries to just lay low and clean peoples houses and stay out of trouble. When she goes for a late night walk and sees someone dump a body in the park she gets drawn into trying to figure out who did it. Lily is in a great spot to figure things out since she heard lots of gossip but everyone knows she never repeats it.

I enjoyed the main storyline for this book. However there was a lot of back story for each character you met which detracted from the overall story for me. I didn't care so much everyones' life story, but I did like Lily. I liked how she interacted with everyone and how she thought. I am hoping in the next book there will be less back story and more main storyline since we hopefully won't have to meet everyone again.

This review was originally posted to [...]

Welcome to Shakespeare, Arkansas, home of Lily Bard. Of course this is not just a coincidence that Lily Bard chose Shakespeare as her home the question really is why does this seemingly quiet, reserved, and intelligent woman choose to clean homes? Why does she choose to cover the body of the dead landlord she stumbles across, call the police chief anonymously, and then pray that no one figures out she was the one who called?

So many questions cloud this small woman who faithfully attends her karate class. While the answers are not altogether shocking, you discover that there is a bit of Lily in all of us. Simply put, we all want to see justice prevail, but are we all willing to fight for it? Are we willing to put our own lives in danger in order for the truth to come to light?

The characters are written well enough for you to form attachments to them and the plot twists enough that sometimes when you think you know who did it, a new curve is thrown at you and makes you question it all over again.

I read this one in two days so it was a nice time filler and nothing too heavy that I couldn't just sit down and enjoy the words put before me. Needless to say, I quickly jumped into book 2, despite the fact that they aren't exactly linked in the same sense that her Sookie Stackhouse series is linked from book to book.

A few years ago I was twiddling my thumbs, waiting for the new Sookie Stackhouse book to come out, when I decided to see what else Charlaine Harris had written. Turned out she'd written a lot of other books, including three other mystery series featuring similarly intrepid heroines. My eye immediately settled on the Lily Bard series of mysteries also known as the "Shakespeare" mysteries because main character Lily lives in the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, and because each book has the word Shakespeare in the title. Up until recently all five of the Lily Bard mysteries were out of print, but then Berkeley Prime Crime re-released the entire series in very attractive mass market editions. My mom gave me the first one, SHAKESPEARE'S LANDLORD, as a Christmas present and I started tracking down the other four before I was even twenty pages in. A big fan of the Sookie books, I was instantly drawn to this darker, less humorous but no less compelling series.

Lily Bard isn't precisely in hiding, but she's flying as far below the radar as is humanly possible. After chopping her hair off, toning her body into lean, mean fighting machine, and then hiding it all under the baggiest and blandest of clothes, Lily decides to settle in the sleepy, little town of Shakespeare, Arkansas in an attempt to disappear. She chose Shakespeare at random off the map because she thought it was rather poetic given her last name. During the day Lily works as a cleaning lady, while at night she trains hard at bodybuilding and karate at the local gym. Every night she hopes it'll be hard enough to allow her to sleep. In her line of work, Lily is in and out of homes, apartments, and office buildings all across town. She sees and hears a lot more than she'd like. Most of it is just your usual small town gossip. But one night, while out on one of her frequent restless midnight walks, Lily sees something unusual. Someone pushing a cart filled with a large, lumpy something wrapped up in black plastic garbage bags. When Lily finds out just what is inside those garbage bags, she becomes inextricably immersed in exactly the kind of gruesome crime she's worked so hard to avoid.

And that is how the series kicks off. Lily, herself, is an extremely tough, conflicted character. I took to her at once. She lives an incredibly regimented, perfectly calculated life and it's almost painful to watch this thread of dark chaos worm its way into her peace and order. And while she is about as alone as a person can get, Harris peoples Shakespeare with a whole town's worth of kooky, creepy, and funny characters. All of whom Lily attempts to sidestep with varying degrees of success. With each book in this series, we learn more about Lily and her nightmarish past as she learns more about herself and those around her. In the second book she is joined by a character who is a particular favorite of mine and the two of them together form one of the most well-suited pairs I've ever come across. I worked my way through this series with palpable pleasure and it was a sad day indeed when I closed the fifth one knowing there would be no more. These are straight up mysteries with a Southern flavor, a fair bit of violence, intense encounters of all varieties, and a lot of grit. There isn't even a hint of the paranormal and all the energy goes into the character development and an honest depiction of a strong woman working hard to stay true to herself and keep the ghosts at bay. Like Harris' more recent Harper Connelly series, I think the Lily Bard mysteries deserve a good deal more attention and I hope those looking to branch out on the Sookie series will find a good home in Shakespeare. I certainly did.

Reading Order: SHAKESPEARE'S LANDLORD, Shakespeare's Champion,Shakespeare's Christmas,Shakespeare's Trollop, and Shakespeare's Counselor

Lily Bard is a cleaning woman with a sad and notorious past. She lives in the small town of Shakespeare and the locals have no secrets from someone who checks out their drawers and washing.
The landlord of the apartment block where Lily lives is found dead in the very small local park in this first book. Lily did the finding and wishes she hadn't. She reports it to the police and tries to forget it. A past rape victim, she takes self-defence classes and walks at night rather than have nightmares. The local police officer is an older shrewd man who enjoys chatting to her and working out the case.
Lily begins to have doubts about the people she knows, including her neighbours. She starts a relationship with the karate master and has to explain her history.
This is a good series, full of personal detail and small concerns, rather than the author's Sookie Stackhouse vampire series which started off well but escalated beyond my caring about the characters.
Better for women than men, but great for mystery fans.

In the 1st book in the Lily Bard Mystery series, we are introduced to the complex character of Lily Bard. Lily is healing from emotional and physical scars she received in a brutal attack several years before, and has moved to the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, to escape the horror of that experience. On an evening that she has trouble sleeping, she watches an unknown person transport a dead body to the arboretum across the street from her home. The killer dumps the body, and leaves Lily to decide whether to expose herself and her secrets to the police, or to leave the dead body exposed to the elements. She provides an anonymous tip to the police, and finds herself as a target for violence once again. Working closely with the chief of police, Lily struggles to catch a killer while learning to heal some of the deep wounds from her past.

This book grabbed me right from the beginning and wouldn't let go until I had finished it much, much later that night. A voracious reader, I could read a book a day...if my schedule permitted. With this book, however, the schedule flew out the window, I blocked out everything else, and I settled in for a nice rainy evening with a great book. I was quickly transported to the small town of Shakespeare into the troubled life of Lily. I loved her dark, brooding character and enjoyed watching her learn to open up and to begin to trust others while facing some of the demons from her past. Lily is a strong yet vulnerable character, and I look forward to watching her evolve and blossom in future installments in this series.

Most books in the cozy genre are not as dark or haunting, and I found my thoughts returning to Lily long after I had finished the book. Lily reminds me somewhat of Kinsey Millhone, and if you are a fan of the series by Sue Grafton, you may want to give this book a try.

The next book in the series is called "Shakespeare's Champion". Enjoy!

Ok novel by Charlaine Harris so it's going to be an urban fantasy, and the title - SHAKESPEARE'S LANDLORD, so vampires or other supernatural goings on in Elizabethan England right? Nope, not even close. The 'Shakespeare' in question is a small town in present day Arkansas, the main character is a cleaning lady who practices martial arts, not Dark ones. Lily Bard is a young, well educated and completely human woman with a dark secret who has chosen to live a very quiet life in the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. When unable to sleep one night Lily happened to see a shadowy figure dragging something next door. That something turned out to be the landlord of the nearby apartment complex. Despite her best efforts to stay hidden in the shadows herself Lily soon found herself, and her past, drawn into the light.

This is the first in a series of novels featuring Lily and her circle of friends and neighbors in the quiet little town of Shakespeare. As is the norm with the romantic cozy genre the main attraction are the backstories of the recurring characters more than the mystery itself. The overall story arc to this series is such that for maximum enjoyment try to read this series in order as much as possible.

After reading two Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, this book is pretty good. However, in comparison to the Southern Vampire Series and the Harper Conelly Mysteries, not so much. I know that I tend to lean to the supernatural side of fiction, but I have enjoyed plenty of books that are about plain, old, every day life.
I like many of the characters in this book, but I find it hard to actually like Lily Bard. It's hard to even feel sorry for her, because she is SO tough. I respect the fact that she changed her life after her tragedy, and that she now lives a safer life, but dang. She is just so..hardcore and at times boring. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one, but I just had a difficult time relating to her.
Not only did I not really care for the main character, but I found the book a little tiresome and overly detailed at times. It took me forever to read this book, and I'm usually a fast reader. I am in the process of reading the second book in the series simply because I want to give this series a chance, and it already seems more interesting than this one, thank God, but I'm still not sure if Lily Bard will ever find a special place in my heart, or even on my bookshelf.

Shakespeare's Landlord is the first in the Lily Bard series by Charlaine Harris. Lily Bard has lived in Shakespeare, Arkansas for four years, working as a cleaning lady, trying to sweep away the secrets of her dark and violent past. But when Lily finds the body of her irritating, gossipy former landlord in the local park, she draws the attention of the rather shrewd local police chief, Claude Friedrich, and her history in Memphis threatens to put her under suspicion. She soon realises she will have to solve the murder if she is to save her own life. As the list of possible suspects lengthens, it seems that Lily and Claude are the only ones in Shakespeare not on it.
Lily Bard is a feisty if reluctant heroine, reminiscent of Kinsey Millhone, V.I.Warshaw and Claudia Valentine. Harris skilfully captures the small town Arkansas feel, her characters are interesting and their dialogue makes for some laugh-out-loud moments, as does, at times, Lily's inner monologue. I was kept guessing to the very end. A very enjoyable read that had me looking forward to the next in the series, Shakespeare's Champion.

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.

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

From the title, I expected an actual story about Shakespeare! But I was not disappointed. I've enjoyed all of Charlaine Harris's Aurora Teagarden mysteries (can't wait to see what happens next with roe & robin & the baby), so I figured I would enjoy this one by Ms. Harris. It's quite a bit different. Still authentically southern, but a little rougher with more graphic violence. Ms. Harris has a true voice for loneliness, need, regret, joy, vulnerability, perseverance and love. And, of course, doing the right thing. I wouldn't recommend it for young teens, but young and old adults will enjoy the twists and turns without getting too grossed out. I don't usually enjoy books with this sort of graphic violence, and these few passages did stay with me for a couple of weeks after I finished the book. But I've already ordered the 2nd one in the series, and I'm looking forward to the interesting characters and plot twists. Keep writing, Charlaine!

Surprisingly this was my first Charlaine Harris book! And really, it's about time. I got the first three Lily Bard books for super cheaps on Audible a few months ago finally decided to give them a listen. I enjoyed the first one very much! Lily Bard is a badass, strong, brave character. I enjoyed the supporting characters and the murder mystery and the not-so-sleepy town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. I immediately started listening to the second book!

Ms. Harris focuses on developing the main character in this 1st book of the Lily Bard series. Lily Bard is compelling, tough and smart. Even though she had a terrible past, you never feel sorry for her. You admire her strength and her guts. She doesn't think of herself as a victim and just wants to live her life but all that changes when she stumbles onto the body of a local landlord.

The store is well told, detailed and rich. The pacing is steady and well thought out.

I've never lived outside a large suburban city, but Ms. Harris writes with such vivid descriptions, I can almost see the details of everything around the characters.

Excellent read. After reading this 1st book, I went out and hunted down the other four in this series and read them all in a week. I just couldn't put them down. The series is just so good.

This is a must read for anyone who appreciates a solid, well told mystery with a well developed, very self-aware, believable, flawed and fascinating protagonist with a bit of baggage.

While out for a walk late one night, Lily Bard sees something she is sure she shouldnt be seeing. Lily has quite a past and wants no attention drawn to her, so when the police begin an investigation to solve the crime that she partially witnessed, instead of immediately stepping forward with the information she has, Lily backs off and keeps quiet...but that doesnt mean that she intends to do nothing about it... she slinks around and performs her own investigation, and what she finds along the way isnt all bad.

Shakespeares Landlord is my first Harris book outside of her wildly entertaining Sookie Stackhouse series. I am SO EXCITED to have found another great group of books. I have already ordered the entire series - now I just have to wait impatiently for them to be delivered :o( Whether or not you have read Harris before, I would recommend this book, but if you are fan of her Vamp stories, then Id definitely say give Lily Bard a try. I have only read this first installment so far, but wow was it a page turner.

As a relatively new fan of Charlaine Harris, I live in fear that the day will come that there won't be any more books from this incredible author. I've gone through the Sookie Stackhouse books like they were a bag of M&M's. This being my first Lily Bard mystery, I was quite impressed though this is certainly darker than the Stackhouse series.

The book opens when Lily, a cleaning lady discovers the dead body of the landlord of an apartment building where she has several clients. The mysterious Lily has a past that she doesn't want discovered and finds herself entwined having to find the killer for her own protection. As usual, Charlaine creates such interesting characters that you literally suspect every one of them.

My only mild criticism of Charlaine's books is that she doesn't always give enough detail to her big reveal which sometimes feels a bit empty. All in all this was a winner. It didn't disappoint.

Harris has 3 series--Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood), Aurora Teagarden, and Lily Bard--and I must admit I think the Lily Bard is my favorite. Lily is far from perfect, yet she is independent and sassy. Over the series we watch her grow emotionally. I hope Harris will continue this series as well as the Sookie Stackhouse books.
Shakespeare's Landlord is the first in the series, so this is Lily at her weakest and most vulnerable. Trying to reestablish her life and her sense of self after a vicious kidnapping and rape, Lily is horrified when her "invisibility" in her new hometown is shattered after she reports the death of her neighbor, the owner/manager of an apartment house.
Harris's characters are well drawn and humorous. We see their strengths and weaknesses but most are likeable in some way. However, there are no vampires--which is actually a good thing.

I was already impressed with Harris' writing style after reading the grave sight series. I am even more impressed now. She is so good -- it's hard to put into words how she does it, but she just makes you want to read more and more. That was the case when I finished this book, so I'm eagerly looking forward to the second one in the series.

I will say there a part of this book that is hard to read, but once you get through it, you really do have a better understanding of the main character. And I have to say that I think that's what I liked most about this book -- the independence and strength of the character of lily bard. I'm very interested to see what happens next with her.

I didn't want to like this book. I mean, come ON! The last thing I need is another series to keep up with, right? It seems like any book I pick up recently is part of one, and I just know that some of them that I meant to continue with are falling through the cracks of my mind. At first I was right on track to not like Ms. Harris' heroine for this story. She seemed quite abrasive. There was some allusion to a past that caused this abrasiveness; however, with no back story to fill the reader in it was easy to write Lily off as one nasty piece of work.

Then Lily is forced to tell her tale, and what a tale it is! Suddenly the reader can see her without the author's filter. Suddenly the reader understands just where Lily's attitude comes from. The times, they are a changin' for our dear heroine in this story, and Ms. Harris does an exemplary job at jumping Lily over the hurdles of her return to real life at a very realistic pace. Add into this a mix of murder, vicious attacks, and a cast of suspicious characters and the reader is given a very thick and juicy plot to gnaw on to their heart's content.

The book concludes nicely and, other than the obligatory love triangle, could be a stand alone piece. This particular reader, however, is now officially hooked on another series and is already a third of the way through "Shakespeare's Champion", the second book in the series.

To Lily Bard, the small, sleepy town of Shakespeare, Arkansas is the perfect place to hide her past. After being brutally gang raped years before, Lily has painstakingly rebuilt her life. She is now must stronger physically and is gaining confidence in her martial arts studies. However, she still disguises her looks and maintains a low profile. After all, housecleaners aren't exactly noticed. But all of that changes when she witnesses a murder...
Suddenly she is faced with a difficult choice - to share what she has learned with the police and lose her hard-won anonymity and gain unwanted attention or to pretend that she never saw anything. Then her married karate instructor starts showing a passionate interest in her and her plan of a private, well-ordered life comes unhinged. Meanwhile, the killer of an unlamented landlord is lurking nearby. And while Lily knows the inside dirt on her neighbors' dust, drawers and private lives, she must admit to a secret of her own: that in the shadow of a brutal murder, she is coming alive again...
This is a short, well-written mystery that will hook you on the Shakespeare/Lily Bard series written so ably by Charlaine Harris. Lily is a fascinating character as she is so strong/tough and yet has her softer side and her weaknesses. In short, she is human. The way she solves the murder is quite entertaining as she uses her knowledge of cleaning the various locations in Shakespeare to eliminate suspects as she goes along. I found the book to be quite humorous as Lily has a wry, dry sense of humor that is very appealing. I highly recommend this book to mystery buffs and for those who enjoyed any of Mrs. Harris' other books. It is unfortunate that books 2 & 3 in the series are out of print, but if I was able to hunt them down, you can too - its well worth it!

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

I've enjoyed Ms. Harris's works for years, well before this series began, and when I ran across it, I was thrilled.
My first reading, however, proved disappointing. I was used to the lighter, humorous tone of the Aurora Teagarden series and was a bit unprepared for the darker Lily Bard.
And then, I loosened up and let myself go with it, and I'm all the better for it. I have encountered few characters as well drawn as Lily Bard. She is an incredibly complex character, yet painted so deftly that the reader gets a full sense of her person. While it is much easier to accomplish this feat with the first-person, as is used here, Ms. Harris allows us to learn about Lily primarily through her actions and interactions with others.
The plot itself is not out of the ordinary--someone's dead, Lily is suspected, she must find the real killer before the cops close in on her, but it's the main character that makes this novel stand out. Why, oh why hasn't someone bought the movie rights to this series?!?

Lily isn't as immediately likable as Sookie or Harper, but she's a great step up from Roe, who seems to have very little personality at all. I'm not a great fan of non-paranormal mysteries, but I'm glad I decided to give this series a chance. You're given just enough information to start trying to figure it out on your own, something I found seriously lacking in the Teagarden series. It's not on the same level as the Southern Vampire or Harper Connelly books, but if you're willing to get passed that, this first book was highly enjoyable. I'll definitely be checking out the rest of the series. If you're only picking it up because you're looking for Sookie's whit and drama, you're going to struggle and be a little disappointed.

I've been trying a few of Ms Harris's other novels since I enjoyed her Southern Vampire Mysteries so much - at least until Dead and Gone. I can't say that I enjoyed this novel, but I also can't say that I disliked it. It may be the darker tone of this book compared to her vampire series or perhaps that mysteries aren't my favorite genre.

I do think Ms Harris is adept at creating interesting and arresting characters. The heroine of this book is a survivor of a brutal crime. As a result, she's withdrawn from most of society. When she does interact with other characters in the books via her job as a cleaning woman, she's wary and distant. There is also a sense of underlying anger in her which is married to her desire not to be a victim again.

Lily wants to keep her past in the past; she doesn't want the residents of Shakespeare, her home of four years, to know what happened to her in Memphis. That quickly disolves one night when Lily follows a person using her garbage cart and discovers he/she has dumped the body of the local landlord in a park. The landlord has the reputation of being the local busybody so he's not highly popular with the host of suspects that follow.

I agree with another review that this is more like a Murder She Wrote type of mystery, but that doesn't make it unpleasant. Even with her vampire series, I don't read them for the "mystery" aspects; I enjoy them for the characters.

I plan to read the next in the series to see where Lily goes. I read her Harper series and found the first book dark and depressing but Harper eventually grew on me in books 2 & 3 so I'm willing to give Lily a shot.

The author was recommended by the same friend who got me started on Laurel K. Hamilton, although she was indicating the vampire series, not the Shakespeare one. However, in reading a bio on the author, I discovered she now lives in my hometown, so figured I'd give her Arkansas based series a try first. The heroine, Lily, shows some signs of potential "Kick Arse Heroine Whom No One Can Defeat" syndrome, which I hope is only my wariness from the hugely disappointing Anita Blake books. However, Lily does frequently fall flat on her face, and perhaps the indications of gathering a harem will be banished in other books. As for the story, it is a nice little murder mystery, if a little too-pat and a bit unsatisfactory on the actual Whodunit. I will try the next to see if she irons out the kinks (one of which is a major geographic goof!).

It seems all Charlaine Harris' series follow the same pattern: female protagonist involved in a crime who at the same time becomes suddenly attractive to several men; mystery set in a small southern town; books filled with details of everyday life of its residents.

Lily Bard series is no different. Lily lives in a small Arkansas town of Shakespeare, runs a cleaning business and practices self-defense in her spare time. One night she witnesses a murder and that's where this first book in the series begins.

This series seems to be darker than other Harris' series due to the protagonist's disturbing past. Otherwise the writing is comfortably and familiarly simple and charming. I intend to continue on reading the rest of this series.

Recommended to those who enjoy Charlaine Harris' writing style and mysteries.

I've read teagarden, sookie,midnight Texas and Lily now and this is my favorite. The reality factor and no hocus pocus, witches,ghouls and vampires for a change.
The dialogue is good,intriguing, mature.
However, this series comes before the true blood etc.
Lily is awesome and strong and super likeable.
Marshal seems like an emotional wheeze...but I'm onto book 2 now I love the chief

But Ms. Harris's writing style is just as unique, and just as compelling.

I'm not a fan of mysteries, normally. They seem to fall into one of two groupings: the Dame Agatha group and the Deaver group.

The Marple mass always seem to have a little murder with supper. They are slightly horrified, but everything seems so silly... the death is never really... real.

The Deaver denizen are just the opposite. A killer is always a serial killer, and they're always out to find nastier ways to kill, gorier trophies, and trickier ways of hiding themselves among the population.

Ms Harris's mystery leans more toward the Murder She Wrote grouping. The murder is treated as a puzzle, and the victim almost as a side story. But the reason for this is we're learning the life of Ms. Lily Bard, and her chosen environs of Shakespeare, AK.

Early on, Lily discloses the icky feeling that the victim gave her, so the lack of concern with his murder is totally explicable. Also, Ms. Bard has quite a back story of her own, and I found myself turning the pages just to see how she'd react in different situations.

I read this in an afternoon. I love Ms. Harris's writing style - if you're a Sookie fan, I think you'll like this simply because of the lead character. I also think if you like the first group of mysteries above, you'll like this. There are enough little twists and turns to make the pulp mystery reader happy.

Heck, I'll probably even read the rest of the series when they're available at the library. I don't usually do that for series...

(*)>

Of course there are similarities between all of this author's top notch female characters: working class, heightened perceptual abilities, unusual relationships with males. But in this novel, the pattern is broken just enough to bring in new interest.The closest comparison would be the "cozy" English village murder mystery with the local sharp-eyed detective present and able to solve the case from a small group of local suspects. However, being American, we have to juice up our lead character with a horrific recovery story and keep the pace very snappy. At the end, there were characters I wanted to know more about and I think this book could easily use an extended re-write. I know I would buy it again just to have those questions answered.

Charlaine Harris excels at writing characters who grab my imagination. Sookie Stackhouse. Harper Connelly. And now Lily Bard. There is no supernatural layer to "Shakespeare's Landlord" as there is in the other two series, but again we meet a character who has a burden that makes her an outsider. Lily's backstory is painful, making her social withdrawal understandable, and the picture Harris paints of Lily's life and her fears of opening up to others is stark and poignant. "Shakespeare's Landlord" is a good mystery but also a great story.

I started reading the Lily Bard books after becoming a fan of True Blood. I have to say, I am hooked. I have read all books in the series and I wish there were more. Lily is a "no nonse" chick with good reason. She has a rough past and is determined never to be the victim again. This book takes you through her life as a cleaning lady trying to figure out who killed the landlord to the apartments in Shakespeare. It is a great mystery that you will not want to put down!

The Book: Shakespeare's Landlord

Author: Charlaine Harris

Format: Hardback

Genre: Mystery

Word Count/Page Count: ~60,000 words / 214 pages

Stars: Two-and-a-half out of five

Where 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.

This is the first Charlaine Harris book I have "read" and I very much enjoyed listening to it. The dialog is authentic and her word choice never made me question it and I enjoyed the plot and characters very much. I have never liked mysteries much, but I loved this book! After reading the low reviews from people who enjoyed The Sookie Stackhouse or Aurora Teagarden series much more this Lily Bard book, I am looking forward to reading everything Charlaine has written. How fun that her Sookie Stackhouse books inspired the HBO True Blood series! I hope to find a good copy of season one at the library to try out.

My first impression: ugh. I forced myself to keep reading, and I am glad I did. Lily Bard is awesome. She is a tough, no nonsense survivor. She is a strong character, so far she seems stronger than Sookie and Roe.

I am a huge fan of Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire novels, so I decided to give this a shot. I am so glad I did! The heroine is a strong, complex and fascinating character.

Lily Bard has moved to Shakespeare, Arkansas and made a quiet life for herself. She does her job as a cleaning lady, goes to her martial arts classes and minds her own business. Then, someone in her sleepy little town gets killed....and she gets dragged into the middle of things.

I fell in love with this series and had to rush out to buy the rest of them. It was great to have such a strong female character! I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes mysteries.

With a heroine you can cheer root for. Charlaine Harris insights into human nature and her ability to make you feel like you truly know a character make this mystery a home run. If you only know her Sookie books then you are missing out.

I am a huge fan of Charlaine Harris, and have been immediatly captured by every book I've read thus far. This book however, is not on my favorites list. I liked the idea of the story, but it seemed to drag..for me. Because I am such a fan, I will continue through the series. I will let you know how they turn out

Usually the mystery genre isn't really my thing but this book is an exception. The mystery itself wasn't really anything special but the heroine is the most interesting character I've come across in a long time. I can't really say anything more about her without giving too much away. Fans of Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series should give this series a try.

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!

I liked this book and this series. I really like the way Lily thinks, so it is enjoyable to read the story in first person. The action started right away, but the story itself took a while to get going. Therefore, the title of this review. I highly recommend this book and series. It's refreshing and extremely cozy!

I have read 4 different series by Charlaine Harris now. This Lily Bard series I would put as #2, just behind the Harper Connelly series.

The Lily Bard series delivers good murder mystery as well as well-defined characters and realistic motivations.

I love Harris' writing. Her descriptions are so thorough and vivid and her characters always come gradually alive. The first in the series, this novel sets the scene and main players. I will read at least one more in this series.

I enjoyed this book as a quick read. However, Lily is more aloof than most of Charlaine Harris' characters, which is part of her identity, but the same holds true for the other characters, as well. This reads like an early work rather than one of her later ones. I will definitely read the next installment, though, to see how the storyline developes.

The book, in fact the whole series, is a fascinating read. The main character, Lilly Bard is a tough gal with a bad past. She is generally antisocial, intelligent and fiercely defensive. This makes her a deeply interesting character as you follow her through solving this mystery.

This book was incredibly entertaining and Lily Bard is a wonderful, strong character who is independent and believable. I have not read the rest of the series but this book does a great job of setting up the characters I am sure will be around for a while. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a nice, light read with a little bit of suspense.

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.

When I started this book I had another book I had planned to read after I finished this one, but instead I had to go out the night I finished this to buy the next book in the series. I loved it! Its a fairly short book and I read it in a few days, if it wasn't the holiday season and I had more time I probably would have read it in a day. I found myself pulling it out every free chance I got because I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next.

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.

I read all of Charlaine's Southern Vampire Mysteries so far with good results. However, when I jumped into this book Shakespeare's Landlord I felt let down tremendously.

This book is about Lily Bard who's been through something traumatic. She's relocated and changed her life. She keeps to herself. She cleans home's and business. While out one night walking she see's something. Unsure of whether or not to report it for fear that it will bring up her past. She makes an anonymous call.

I was at about page 56 when I was thinking, this chick is awful. She really dislikes everyone. Even people who are trying to be nice to her she's sort of abrupt and short with. It's common courtesy to be polite. Yet, Lily isn't. I get that she went through something before Shakespeare but come on. It just makes the story hard to swallow and not fun at all.

I vote to skip this one next time. I do want to try one more but I almost feel like I'm putting myself through something I don't need to.

I am a huge fan of the Sookie Stackhouse books as well as the Harper Conelly series. I had a harder time getting sucked into the Lily Bard books, another Sookie series it is not, but I did enjoy how Charlaine Harris draws out the story. I can't say this is a book I will pass on but if you are a Harris fan it's worth the read.

While this looks like a cozy, it's quite dark, graphic and unrealistic. Characters make unrealistic choices, there is a very dark graphic scene that will stick with you for a long time and it's quite heavyhanded to predict the culprit. Not a beach read or feel good book.

(See mea culpa at the end)

I checked this out electronically from my local library and was frustrated and disappointed that the publisher restrictions require that I use a USB and cannot use Wireless download. I was a big fan of Charlaine Harris, but with her clout as an A list writer, it's inexcusable that she chooses to assume that her readers need that extra layer of security so that they won't steal her books.

I was looking forward to reading this. But now, in order to read it I have to go through preparations that involve moving my computer from one room to another, digging up a DSL line so that my computer is directly attached to the network, then getting a separate USB line and hooking up my e-reader so that I can read it.

I really wanted to read this book. I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy it. But I'll be danged if I'm going to support an author that for no good reason makes it difficult to read her books. So sorry. Done.

*Edited to add: In the end, I loved the book. Still don't like the limitations of the library system, but I've found a workaround and it no longer affects me. This character was, in my opinion, better than Sookie Stackhouse.