Title: Shakespeare's Landlord
Author: Charlaine Harris
Date Published: July 1996
Series: A Lily Bard Mystery #1
Genre: Mystery (Contemporary)
Rating: B
ISBN: 978-0-425-20686-7

From the back cover:
Disguising herself with short hair and baggy clothes, Lily Bard has started over in the sleepy town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, where - working as a cleaning lady - she can sweep away the secrets of her dark and violent past…

When Lily discovers the dead body of her nosy landlord, her plan to live a quiet, unobserved life starts to crumble. Lily doesn't care who did it. But as the unwanted attentions of the police chief and a suspicious community fall on her, she soon realizes if she doesn't unmask the murderer, her life might do more than crumble…it might end.


I never sensed that Lily was in "danger" in this book as the blurb seems to imply. At least not from the killer the story is centered around.

I've noticed a pattern in Charlaine Harris' writing. All of her women have tragic pasts, Lily Bard's is certainly the most traumatic, though Harper Connelly's is no cake-walk either. The only one that doesn't (that we know of anyway) is Aurora Teagarden. I do like the grit these characters show despite what they've gone through. Lily proves no exception to this.

The cast of characters in little old Shakespeare, Arkansas are in general funny and quirky. Acting as a cleaning lady in houses and business gives Lily an in to many secrets. She's liked for her discretion as she tells no one what she discovers in the garbage cans or on the desks of those people she cleans for.

As usual with Charlaine, the whodunit wasn't plainly obvious. I did suspect correctly, but not much before Lily did I don't think.

Well thought out and written, I look forward to reading the next installment in Shakespeare, Arkansas.

Next up: Behind the Mask by Joanna Wayne a Harlequin Intrigue from 1995.

©Susan Falk and phantomroses.com