Shakespeare, Arkansas, is a small Southern town with plenty of secrets, and Harris's Lily Bard, fresh from the acclaimed "Shakespeare's Landlord", just one more of its residents with a shadowy past and a desire to live quietly. She's a cleaning woman with remarkable access to Shakespeare's homes--and private lives. Lily reluctantly turns sleuth again when a fellow fitness devotee is found dead at the gym, a barbell across his throat.
Shakespeare's Champion
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No steel magnolia, Lily Bart is one blunt, tough Southern woman--a tiny, karate-chopping, bodybuilding dynamo who's come to Shakespeare, Arkansas, to restart her life after a series of traumatic events just hinted at in this second novel in Charlaine Harris's series (after Shakespeare's Landlord). When she slips into her gym for an early morning workout and finds Del Packard with a barbell across his throat, she doesn't think for more than a second that it's an accident. Not when it's the third death in a couple of months in a town hardly big enough for its own WalMart. Then the blue broadsheets with thinly veiled hints of white supremacist activity start turning up under the windshield wipers of every car on Main Street. Lily's a relative newcomer to Shakespeare, but as a cleaning woman for the local landed gentry, she's privy to many secrets that most outsiders never learn. When a handsome stranger keeps turning up at the scene of an increasingly bizarre series of events, including a burglary at one of her regular clients and a bombing in a black church, she suspects he may be more than an innocent bystander. Which is too bad, because he stirs up desires that Lily hasn't felt for any man for a very long time. Lily Bard is a complex woman who embodies many of the contradictions of the modern South--its dark side as well as its charm--and this suspenseful, deftly written novel will send new fans scrambling to read its predecessor. --Jane Adams
From Kirkus Reviews
The author's strong, often silent heroine, Lily Bard, and Shakespeare, Arkansas, her adopted hometown, in a second appearance (Shakespeare's Landlord, 1996). Lily cleans houses for a living and works out at the BodyTime Gym. There, early one morning, she and young Bobo Winthrop discover the body of fitness enthusiast Del Packard--crushed by a weight-laden bar. Accident or murder? Police Chief Claude Freidrich, Lily's neighbor and would-be lover, doesn't have a clue. Meanwhile, Packard's death seems yet more evidence of the town's sinister atmosphere, a sense of unease going back to the not-long-ago beating death of black Darnell Glass and the killing, a few weeks later, of white farmer Lee Elgin--neither murder ever solved. Now, the racist fliers placed in car windows around town don't help. Then there's the pony-tailed stranger seen with Hollis Winthrop Jr.--one of Lily's employers and head of his family's lucrative sporting- goods business now that patriarch Hollis Sr. has retired. A frightening act of violence in the black community church prompts the stranger to reveal his true identity to Lily, and it's she, with help from an unexpected source, who rescues him as the whole ugly scenario unravels. Wheels within wheels in a suspenseful story packed with nasty characters, a few good guys, some graphic sex, and more exercise and karate lore than you ever wanted to know. Lily's stubborn, moody, gutsy persona holds it all together, and most readers will be with her to the finish. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Karen Potts
Format:Hardcover
Lily Bard tries to keep her unhappy past at a distance by working out at the local gym and doing a job, cleaning houses, which keeps her occupied and takes her mind off her past. While going into the gym, she discovers a local bodybuilder with a barbell across his neck. This and other incidents lead Lily to believe that racial problems are getting out of hand in her adopted Arkansas town. She teams up with a handsome detective and they search for the truth, almost afraid of what they may find out about their fellow townspeople. This book is a little too dark to classify as a cozy, but it does make for a good read.
Format:Hardcover
This second book in the Lily Bard/Shakespeare series was nicely written and entertaining. Ms. Harris did a terrific job weaving the plot and introducing Jack Leeds. This story brings together the rather sick thoughts hidden behind the gentile Southern manner of a few of the Shakespeare mighty. My my, what you don't know.
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I've read all four books in this series, and am looking forward to the fifth. This is one of the best. Lily's actions and attitudes ring true with her past, and it's fascinating watching her guard go down in small ways as she starts to let people into her life. The mysteries are intruging, and the characters (Jack is a solid addition) fit the setting.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good read. Well developed characters
I enjoyed this second installment of the Shakespeare series. Lily Bard and the other residents of Shakespeare are interesting and well developed. Read more
Published on July 8 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
So good.
This is the best book I've read in quite a while. Lily is interesting and the book is full of mystery. And Jack just makes it all better.
Published on April 30 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book, could not put it down!
I loved this book for many reasons. Harris' style is unique, and as a sixteen year old girl I found it very enjoyable.
Published on April 20 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
a quick read, with a fast moving plot
the best book by harris yet. she uses a variety of incidences to prove a point. the characters blend into the mysterious town. a super read, not dull or repetitive. Read more
Published on Aug 30 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
The plots and insights are wonderful
From Lily Bard to Aurora Teagarden, Ms. Harris writes novels that show the depth of the character and also the interaction amongst characters. Wonderfully imaginative.
Published on Jun 25 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
Author's Best Book So Far.
Charlaine Harris has joined the ranks of one of the top five female mystery writers. This is her best book so far. Love Lilly Bard!
Published on Jan 18 1998
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought provoking atmospheric mood piece by a top talent
Lily Bard fled her Tennessee home, expecting to find peace by moving to the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. Read more
Published on Oct 4 1997
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