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 Champion
by
Charlaine Harris
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by JABberwocky Literary Agency Inc. on January 9, 2023 and has 225 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, Shakespeare’s Landlord, Last Scene Alive
Second in the Lily Bard amateur sleuth cozy mystery series and revolving around a cleaning lady in hiding. It’s October in Shakespeare, Arkansas. The focus is on bigotry and a new man in town.
My Take
It’s a sad tale of bigotry, all from Lily’s perspective in first person protagonist point-of-view — what’s with a white woman cleaning for a black woman? It’s an oy for Lily, lol. And it’s a stereotype that has some people pissed off.
There’s a “white” movement afoot to “take back your own” with the usual stupidity, including bombing a public place.
Then there’s another stereotype in here of Marshall expecting Lily to lighten up, now that she has a guy.
It’s an interesting perspective Lily has on muscular development, as she never intends to be a victim again.
I do feel for Friedrich. He does want so badly to date Lily, and she’s torn. Not only is she torn between Friedrich and Marshall, she’s also torn about letting anyone in to her life. She’s been betrayed before. But it is opening things up, for Lily is discovering that she missed that intimacy of friendship.
That fight in Shakespeare’s Landlord, 1, was just nasty. Between a white boy who done wrong and an easily angered black boy. I do like Lily’s response to one white boy’s nasty father.
For a spoiled rich kid, Bob is all right. As for Jack, lol, that’s one way to get a woman in bed.
It’s an unexpected set of actions, and unfortunately, a not unexpected reaction from those white stupidheads. I just don’t get these people!? And yeah, the action is definitely driven by their characters. Can we get a stupid bomb in here? One we can aim at the stupid people?
Shakespeare’s Champion is fast-paced enough to keep me ripping through it and reminding me why I enjoy this cozy mystery series.
The Story
People are on the boil in Shakespeare. White supremacist leaflets are dropping everywhere, people are being murdered, and a church is bombed.
And Lily Bard keeps cropping up in all the wrong places.
The Characters
Shakespeare may be . . .
. . . small, but it sits in an area renowned for its hunting.
The frugal Lily Bard is passionate about working out and taking karate classes — and rediscovers her joy of singing. Serena, her sister, is busy with parties and showers for her wedding.
Lily’s clients include Helen and Mel Drinkwaters, who aren’t too happy with Lily and have messy grandchildren; Mookie Preston, a genealogist, and Shakespeare Garden Apartments are new clients; the naive Deedra Dean, who sleeps with anybody; the sweet and very old Marie Hofstettler, who has good days and bad days (Chuck is her son who pays Lily and takes Marie out every Saturday); Dr Carrie Thrush, who runs the Shakespeare Clinic under a school loans requirement; and, the Winthrops.
The Body Time gym is . . .
. . . owned by Marshall Sedaka, who teaches karate and is Lily’s sometimes lover. Thea is Marshall’s terror of an estranged wife. Tanya, a student at the University of Arkansas, works there. Del Packard, who’s training up for the competition and works at Winthrop’s store; Janet Shook, who teaches aerobics and does after-school childcare; Brian Gruber, who is the president of a local plant; Jerri Sizemore (ex-wife of Dr John Sizemore); Raphael Roundtree, who is a worried Black friend of Lily’s; and, Darcy Orchard, one of the bigots, who usually works out with Jim Box, both of whom work at Winthrop Sporting Goods, are the core group of members. Lindy Roland is Del’s girlfriend.
Shakespeare PD
Claude Friedrich is the chief of police and lives in the Shakespeare Garden Apartments next door to Lily. He wants to be her lover. Detective Dedford Jinks is suspicious. Officer Tom David Meicklejohn is on Lily’s black list. She isn’t happy with Todd Picard either.
Sheriff Marty Schuster is in charge of investigating Darnell’s death. John Bellingham is with the FBI. Detective Jack Leeds of the Memphis PD, worked a lot of undercover and had a good work record; he had a rotten personal life.
The Shakespeare Combined Church (SCC) is where Brother Joel McCorkindale is the pastor. The Episcopal St Stephen’s was Marie Hofstettler’s church. The Golgotha Church had a meeting about bigotry. Carlton Cockcroft is another neighbor of Lily’s as well as her accountant. Becca Whitley is Pardon’s niece, finally in town to look over her inheritance. Sally Hemmings is of interest to Mookie Preston. The well-to-do Lacey Dean is Deedra’s mother who married the mean Jerrell Knopp. Big Cedric is the only mechanic Lily trusts. Len Elgin, a friend of Claude’s, was killed shortly after due to seeing someone else’s wife. Mary Lee is Len’s wife. Booth Moore is another farmer married to Erica, the supposed other woman. Norvel Whitbread. Tom and Jenny O’Hagen left town to manage a larger Bippy’s. Marcus Jefferson moved on. Pardon Albee had been the landlord/owner of the Shakespeare Garden Apartments.
Mr Black Ponytail is lurking around town. Karen Kingsland, the wife of another cop, Walter Kingsland, had been his supposed lover in Memphis, Tennessee.
The spoiled but nice Bobo Winthrop is Howell Jr and Beanie Winthrop‘s son, who has managed a job at Body Time — Lily reckons he wants to ogle the women. Their other children include Amber Jean and Howell III. Howell owns the local sports / exercise equipment / marine supplies store amongst other interests, which includes Winthrop Lumber and Home Supply and Winthrop Oil. Howell’s parents are the jerky Howell Sr and the warm Arnita, the uncrowned king and queen of Shakespeare. Callie Gandy is the senior Winthrops’ full-time housemaid.
Jared Fletcher is the new employee at Winthrop Sporting Goods. Al Ferrar works the cash register. Cleve Ragland works at the mattress factory and is one of the gang. Paulie works at the Home Supply Store.
Burger Tycoon was the scene of The Fight between Bob Hodding and Darnell Glass, who was murdered in Shakespeare’s Landlord, 1. Darnell’s mother, Lanette Glass, a junior high school teacher and activist, is planning a civil suit. Tee Lee Blaine had been Darnell’s girlfriend.
Montrose is the nearest town and has a great library, an independent bookstore, and an assortment of decent restaurants. Marvel’s Gym is the biggest.
The Cover and Title
The cover is dark with a black beat-up wall at the gym, against which is the rack for that bloodied barbell sitting athwart on the floor. All the text is white starting with the thin sans-serif font for the first part of the title and a thick serif for the last word in the title sitting just below the top rack. Crossing the barbell is an info blurb with the author’s name below it.
The title could be several people, although Lily Bard is the most prominent Shakespeare’s Champion.
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