I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
Shakespeare’s Landlord
by
Charlaine Harris
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by JABberwocky Literary Agency Inc. on 2023 and has 212 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Night's Edge, Death's Excellent Vacation, Must Love Hellhounds, Dead Reckoning, Bite, A Secret Rage, Home Improvement: Undead Edition, Deadlocked, An Apple for the Creature, Dead Ever After, The Sookie Stackhouse Companion, Games Creatures Play, After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse, Indigo, Night Shift, Sleep Like a Baby, The Pretenders, A Longer Fall, An Easy Death, The Russian Cage, Small Kingdoms and Other Stories, Real Murders, A Bone to Pick, Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, Dead Until Dark, The Julius House, Dead Over Heels, A Fool and His Honey, Last Scene Alive, Shakespeare’s Champion
First in the Lily Bard cozy amateur sleuth mystery series and revolving around an independent-minded cleaning lady in Shakespeare, Arkansas. It was originally published in 1996.
My Take
It’s that first chapter that introduces us to Lily. There was Memphis Lily. Now there’s hardbodied Lily, determined to survive. It’s through Harris’ use of first person protagonist point-of-view that we learn about her trauma and how she copes, the distance she tries to keep between herself and everyone else.
A insular as Lily’s life is, she does meet a wide range of characters. Between her karate lessons at the local gym and the cleaning clients we meet, wow. From high society to those struggling to get by, we meet ‘em all.
She’s privy to a lot of secrets, primarily in her role as their cleaning lady. Remote, Lily still has compassion.
You know, I hate those people who claim to be Christians and are the nastiest people in real life. Talk about lip service. That goes for the minister too and his petty attempt at blackmail. Jerk.
Then things get worse for Lily. All due to a bit of carelessness. Although, her learning karate does get validated.
There’s plenty of action and that’s due to those characters, the good, the average, and the bad. It’s all at a medium pace, as Harris introduces us to everyone. Yet it is an easy read.
Lily is a real-life character with a major real-life problem. I’m going to look forward to watching Lily’s life evolve.
The Story
It was the garbage bag on Lily’s late-night walkabout. She can’t just let it go, then the police and local community start pointing fingers in her direction.
Lily realizes that proving her innocence will depend on finding the real killer in quiet, secretive Shakespeare.
The Characters
Lily Bard fled Memphis for Shakespeare where she’s lived for the past four years. She runs and staffs what she secretly refers to as Shakespeare’s Sanitary Service. Varena is her sister.
Marshall Sedaka, the owner of Body Time, is Lily’s karate instructor with an interest in Lily. Marshall is separated from his wife, Thea Armstrong, who, ahem, is a bed-hopper with an interest in BDSM and who teaches at the SCC Day Care. Derrick works at the gym in the evenings. Raphael Roundtree, a high school math teacher; Janet Shook; and, Brian Gruber, who is an executive at the mattress-manufacturing plant, also take karate lessons. They’ll be joined by the handsome Carlton Cockroft, an accountant interested in Lily and who is one of her neighbors.
Pardon Albee, a real estate developer, owns the Shakespeare Garden Apartments. The alcoholic and obstreperous Norvel Whitbread is supposed to do janitorial work for Pardon. Tenants include the bed-hopping Deedra Dean; the handsome Marcus Jefferson and his son, Kenya; T.L. and Alvah York (another client); Sarah is the Yorks’ granddaughter; and, the sweet, elderly Marie Hofstettler — Chuck is Marie’s son.
Some of Lily’s cleaning clients include the O’Hagens; Mel and Helen Drinkwater; Carol and Jay Althaus; and, Howell Three and Beatrice “Beanie” Bobo Winthrop — Bobo is their son (Earline Poffard is the Winthrops’ family cook). Dr John Sizemore is a dentist who’s getting a divorce from Jerri. Mary Helen Hargreaves is his receptionist. Linda Gentry is his nurse. Dr Carrie Thrush, at the Shakespeare Clinic, is new in town. Nita Tyree is her receptionist while Gennette Jinks is her nurse. The garrulous Mrs Rossiter has and old cocker spaniel, Durwood, who needs a biweekly bath.
Claude Friedrich is the chief of police with an unexpected interest. Dolph Stafford is a detective. Officers include Tom Davie Meiklejohn, who thinks of women as interchangeable body parts. Lottie is the dispatcher.
The Reverend Joel McCorkindale serves the Shakespeare Combined Church (SCC). Lacey Dean Knopp, Deedra’s widowed and remarried mother (Jerrell Knopp is Deedra’s racist stepfather), and Jenny and Tom O’Hagen, who manage Bippy’s, a franchise of a national restaurant, are all on the preschool board at the church.
Celie Schiller is Deedra’s ticky co-worker. Harley Don Murrell was convicted of rape.
Memphis
The Queen of Clean was the company for which Lily had worked. Louis “Nap” Ferrier and Harry were the kidnappers.
The Cover and Title
The cover is that opening inciting incident, a nighttime close-up of Pardon Albee’s apartment building, a single light on in a window with a “for rent” sign in it. Between the first- and second-floor windows is the title in white. An info blurb is at the bottom, just above the author’s name; both are in white.
The title is about the first murder, Shakespeare’s Landlord.
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