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 Counselor
by
Charlaine Harris
It is part of the Lily Bard #5 series and is a suspense in a Kindle edition that was published by Minotaur Books on November 6, 2001 and has 240 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
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, Shakespeare’s Champion, Poppy Done to Death, Shakespeare’s Christmas, Shakespeare’s Trollop
Fifth (and last?) in the Lily Bard suspense series in Arkansas and revolving around a cleaning lady who knows karate.
My Take
Whoa, that first line is quite the inciting incident! Thank god it forces Lily to realize she needs HELP, which we know all about through Harris’ use of first person protagonist point-of-view from Lily’s perspective. I do love Lily’s strong sense of self, lol. Take that, Amber Jean!
The ladies in the therapy group are a wide-ranging circle with distinctive personalities with a nasty assortment of rape stories. Some of them also have a nasty perspective on how women deserved what they got — until they experienced their own rapes. I did appreciate the more extreme actions a few of the ladies took on their attackers. Buggers deserved it!
Lily is also stepping out into a new job: working as an apprentice detective. That surveillance case she’s working for Jack was a crack-up. She and Jack were so depressed over the case, and yet Jack is so very certain! Yep, Lily’s character arc is progressing as she steps out and makes changes in her life — love makes a difference. And she does spend time going over it and over it in her mind. There’s yet another, sort of, positive in Lily’s life. Something she thought she’d never be able to do or have.
I had to laugh at Lily’s exercise class that she gives some of the members at Mel’s gym — they’re lovin’ it.
I’m not too impressed with Tamsin — yes, I think she’s a great counselor, but she did not step up. Sure, her and her husband’s lives have been upended so many times, but . . . I do appreciate that the ladies in group therapy call Tamsin on it.
Jesus that guy who’s undercover in town? I’m with Lily in being disgusted with his attitude.
I’m confused. For the last four books, Marshall Sedaka has owned Body Time and now Mel Brentwood does?
Stokes is not impressing me either — she’s being such a hard ass! Then again, I do appreciate how difficult her being a woman makes her job. Oy. Yeah, another form of bigotry, although there is a wee bit of bigotry in here that gets shot down. It was rather funny. Then again . . . rape. Another form of bigotry.
Why is it wrong for a woman to want to look attractive? I think about those countries who force women to wear body-covering garments — because a man seeing their hair, ankles, whatever, will get excited and want to rape them. What’s wrong with the man that something so simple incites them? Are they really that weak?
Do NOT blame the victim! It’s on the man (or woman) who thinks it’s okay to force someone. No one deserves the punishment of being raped. Lily does make a good point about how incredibly awful life had been for women in the past. Now we just think we’re safer.
I like that thought Lily has about how “very few women walked alone at night hoping a man would offer them a choice between sex and strangulation”. That grandmothers and children are not “asking for it”.
Lily is still walking that thin line between her love for Jack and her attraction to Bobo.
And Lily discovers how many people in Shakespeare care about her. It made me cry.
Dang it. I hate that Harris seems to have ended the series. I want to know more about Lily’s future. About the store Bobo wants to start up . . . and his partnership with Janet.
At the end, all that “my wife” cracked me up and left me with good feelings . . . thank god.
The Story
It’s that surprise attack that stings Lily into signing up for rape therapy. She can’t go on like this. She loves Jack so much. She’s making so many changes, and she wants more.
Then it’s murder with some nasty discoveries, and Lily is determined to figure out the who and why of it.
The Characters
Lily Bard is a cleaning lady in Shakespeare, Arkansas, who knows karate. She’s suffering PTSD as a result of an ordeal she suffered some years ago. Jack Leeds, a disgraced police officer-turned-private detective, is her live-in boyfriend. Roy Costimiglia and Elizabeth “Aunt Betty” Frey are private detectives and good friends of Jack’s.
The under-siege Tamsin Lynd is a mental health counselor at the Hartsfield County Health Center. Fellow attendees include Janet Shook, Lily’s almost-friend from karate who teaches Safe After School; Sandy McCorkindale, the wife of the SCC minister; Carla Preston; Melanie Kleinhoff is married to Deke (Saralyn Kleinhoff is Melanie’s sister-in-law, recently divorced from Tom Kleinhoff, Deke’s brother); and, Firella Bale. Cliff Eggers, a medical transcriptionist, is Tamsin’s husband.
Claude Friedrich, the chief of police in Shakespeare, is married to Dr Carrie Thrush (Shakespeare’s Trollop, 4). Both are friends of Lily’s. Detective Alicia Stokes is a newcomer. Other officers include Stuckey and Gerry McClanahan, who has two dachshunds, Sadie and Sam. Dani Weingarten, a mystery writer, is Gerry’s fiancée.
Lily is down to three clients for her cleaning business: the pathetic (and pregnant again) Carol and Jay Althaus, a traveling salesman (they have four out-of-control children altogether: Cody, Tyler, the sweet, insightful Heather, and Dawn); the Winthrops are back; and, the Drinkwaters. Previous clients had included Birdie Rossiter with her elderly spaniel, Durwood.
Tommy Sutton is Cody’s friend. Mart Weekins chose to pass at the wrong time. Pete Blanchard, a former cop, owns Sneaky Pete, a store that sells spy gadgets. Marietta is Pete’s wife. Pete’s son, Washington “Wash”, is a bit of an idiot, who’s turned on by Lily’s ordeal. Jack is searching for a sixteen-year-old runaway from Maumelle and includes some nasty facts about the futures of runaways. Summer Dawn Macklesby was one of Jack’s successful cases (Shakespeare’s Christmas, 3). The descendants of Harry Estes may yet inherit the land the Estes Arboretum is on. It is sad that it only takes a few to make life miserable for others. Bonnie Crider is a Worker’s Comp claimant. Kate Henderson has been Carrie’s daily cleaning lady. Danby is one of Carrie’s patients. Gennette Jenks is Carrie’s suspicious nurse. Karen Kingsland had been Jack’s lover in the past. Dr Howard is also at the hospital. Syndi Swayze teaches jazz. Mary Lou Pettit is the librarian. Greg Kinneally is a photographer. Gibson Banks writes about true crime. Lindsey Wilkerson is a bitchy former girlfriend of Jack’s. Charles had been a patient of Tamsin’s.
Bobo Winthrop is the oldest, followed by Howell III, and Amber Jean, their sister and quite the snot. Their parents are Howell II and Beanie. Mary Frances is one of Bobo’s former girlfriends. Mrs Powell, Mary Frances’ aunt, is a nurse in the ER.
Marshall Sedaka owns Body Time and teaches karate. He’d also been a boyfriend of Lily’s. Some of his students include Janet and Carlton Cockcroft, who is also Lily’s neighbor and accountant. Thea, Marshall’s ex, is not getting married and is dating the new mortician now. Mel Brentwood is opening a second Marvel Gym. Linda Doan is one of the managers. That slacker, Byron, is another employee while the thieving Mandy Easley and Jay Scarlatti (Katy is his wife) are members.
The Cover and Title
The cover feels vintage with its yellowed paper against a black and brown background. The paper is angled and is an announcement about therapy sessions and includes tear-off slips on the bottom. The text appears hand-lettered with the title at the top in black and a black-outlined pale red with a turquoise horizontal rule. To the left is the series info in script with another turquoise line under that — right next to the butcher’s knife plunged into the paper. Beneath that is a hand-printed testimonial in black. Below that is the author’s name in the same black-outlined pale red. At the very bottom on the left is a black-gloved hand reaching for one of those strips.
The title revolves around the helpful Shakespeare’s Counselor.
