Customer Reviews

Shakespeare's Trollop (Lily Bard Mysteries, Book 4)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cleaning lady Lily Bard appears for the 4th time in SHAKESPEARE'S TROLLOP. This time the murder victim is Deedra, the local "bad girl" who was best known for her promiscuity. Nearly every male in town is a suspect, but in spite of having a ton of suspects to question, the police can't figure out the killer's identity.

Deedra's mother, Lacey, asks Lily to help her dispose of Deedra's belongings, and Lily unintentionally learns more about the victim's personal life than she wants to know. Without actually snooping or interrogating suspects, Lily manages to find the vital clue that exposes whodunit. I was kept guessing right to the surprise ending.

Lily is a difficult character. Herself the victim of rape and attempted murder, she has slowly worked out her anger and is just starting to get on with a more normal life. Always an arresting personality, she has become more likeable with each book. In SHAKESPEARE'S TROLLOP, Lily shows her more human side, and I was pleased to see her developing relationship with Jack. I very much look forward to the next in this thought-provoking series.

Lily Bard, house cleaning extraordinaire, returns to us again with a more mature story then the previous ones in this series. While murder is the topic, the real story here is that Lily advances greatly. I won't blow the maturity issue but I do think this is one of the best books in the series. I am definitely looking forward to the next one to see just how one of my favorite characters continues to grow and become comfortable with her past. I only wish she cleaned in my area!

In SHAKESPEARE'S TROLLOP, we meet Lily Bard for the fourth time. Lily, housecleaner, karate expert, rape and tortue victim, continues to deal with her past while dealing with the present--people who say, "Oh, you're THAT person". When Lily finds a body, she does what she does with the rest of her life, she quietly goes about her business, keeping her eyes and ears open. In this book, Lily is more personable, more likeable and just as real as ever. I highly recommend this book and sincerely hope that Charlaine Harris can give us another "Lily Bard" as soon as possible!

For someone who doesn't like to get involved in other people's affairs, Lily Bard seems to have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In book #4 of Charlaine Harris' superb Lily Bard mystery series, Lily discovers lifelong Shakespeare resident Deedra Dean murdered inside a car parked in a woodsy area outside of town. Lily quickly becomes a suspect when it is discovered that Deedra died of a severe blow to the chest - a blow that could only have been delivered by a martial arts expert. The sheriff becomes even more suspicious regarding her involvement when Deedra's mother asks Lily to help her clean Deedra's apartment, but Lily is determined not to get involved this time and fully intends to leave the case in Sheriff Marta Schuster's capable hands. However, Deedra's notoriously promiscuous lifestyle provides an extensive list of suspects, but very few clues. Much as Lily disliked Deedra in life, she feels that she has no choice but to resume the role of amateur detective and join the investigation.

Once again, a fabulous book from the superb author, Charlaine Harris. With every book Lily Bard and the other characters who reside in Shakespeare become more fleshed out and more entertaining. Lily is really starting to develop into a real person again after being violently assaulted years before and it is fun to see her change. I thought that the mystery plot this time was wonderful and had a nice little surprise twist at the end. For anyone who enjoys mysteries, I cannot recommend this series enough!

This series is well worth the time, money, and wait(for each new mystery). A strong female main character with a very well developed story. A good read.

I was unable to obtain the previous three copies of the Lily Bard series and had to settle with starting with Shakespeare's Trollop. I don't like to read series books out of order, but I love Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series and wanted to give one of her mystery books a whirl. Shakespeare's Trollop was a fun, engrossing novel that kept me guessing until its final pages. Lily Bard is a thirty-something cleaning lady and karate expert who has discovered the dead body of a woman whose reputation was not the greatest one in Shakespeare, Arkansas. The townspeople are disturbed, albeit unsurprised about Deedra's awful demise. Lily has to find the man who raped and killed one of her employers. She hadn't anticipated opening an unexpected can of worms...

The mystery was well done and nicely presented. Charlaine Harris kept me guessing. I liked the southern town backdrop of the story. Harris has brought out the same southern charm she had done with the Sookie Stackhouse book. I only regret not having gotten reacquainted with the colorful characters with the earlier books. It seems that there has been a lot of history between Lily and various characters in the series. I hope to be able to read the first three parts at some stage in the future. Lily is a great character. I like the whole reluctant sleuth thing. She is someone I want to read more of. The overall story was well executed despite its shortness (only 194 pages). All in all, I enjoyed Shakespeare's Trollop and I only hope to be able to read all of the books so that I could get a better feel of this promising mystery series.

Shakespeare's Trollop (2000) is the fourth mystery novel in the Lily Bard series, following Shakespeare's Christmas. In the previous novel, Lily knocked down the killer, but he landed on top. Then he knocked her out with a manger. When she awoke only minutes later, the killer was upstairs. Then the police and Jack arrived.

In this novel, Lily Bard cleans houses and does other housekeeping chores for her clients. She has lived in Shakespeare for about four years. She has also been involved in three criminal investigations.

Jack Leeds is a private investigator in Little Rock. He has been dating Lily for the past few months.

Marta Schuster is the county sheriff. When her father died, she had been appointed to fill the rest of his term. Unlike her small, banty father, Marta is a tall -- but tough -- woman who has done a good job as the temporary sheriff.

Marlon Schuster is the brother of Marta. He is also the last lover of Deedra.

Becca Whitley is the niece of Pardon Albee and had inherited the Shakespeare Garden Apartments after his death. She lives in Pardon's old apartment and manages the place. She is now the highest ranking student in the karate class at the Body Time gym.

Carrie Thrush is Lily's doctor and a client of her cleaning services. She is struggling to repay her school loans. Lately she has been dating Claude Friedrich, the Shakespeare Chief of Police.

Joseph Christopher Prader is a mean old man. He lives in the only remaining home on a commercial street. Joe C. is an ardent smoker and uses the habit to irritate people.

Bobo Winthrop is the eldest child of Howard and Beatrice. He is also a grandchild of Joe. He has moved back to Shakespeare and is back at the University of Arkansas. He still has a crush on Lily.

In this story, Lily discovers the corpse of Deedra Dean on a country lane. Deedra is naked and sitting behind the steering wheel of her car. Her clothing is scattered around the car, but her purse is gone.

The body is just outside the city limits, so the 911 dispatcher sends the call to the the county sheriff's office. Marta is the first to arrive the scene, but another deputy is just behind her. Others come shortly after that.

Then Marlon drives up. He is very distraught and heads for the body. A deputy grabs him to keep the crime scene unspoiled. Then Marlon tries to take a swing at Marta and Lily knocks the wind out of him.

Lily tells the Sheriff almost everything she knows about the murder, which is not very much. She does lie about whether she has seen any of Deedra's lovers. Since Deedra had been one of her clients, she has a key to the apartment.

After relinquishing the key, Lily goes off to finish her next job. Jack calls while she is cleaning a house and says that he will be taking a plane to Sacramento. He is looking for a runaway boy.

Then Lily goes to meet the sheriff at Deedra's apartment. She runs into Becca in the hallway and they briefly discuss the murder. Then Becca says that she will see Lily at karate practice and Lily goes upstairs to Deedra's apartment.

The sheriff wants Lily to see if anything is missing in the apartment. Everything seems to be in its place. Later Lily discovers that a TV Guide is gone.

Lily goes over to clean Joe Prader's house. There she learns that Deedra was another grandchild of the old man. Later Bobo tells her the contents of Joe's will.

Then Lily is asked to witness the marriage of Carrie and Clause. They don't want a large church wedding, so Carrie and Claude are married in a civil ceremony at the courthouse. They have a very short honeymoon after the wedding, but will take a longer one later.

This tale takes Lily back to Deedra's apartment several times. The victim's mother hires Lily to pack up the clothing and other portable items to give to charities. She does offer Lily her choice of clothes, but Lily only takes a couple of coats.

Lily can't help thinking about the murder during her daily activities. As she has told the Sheriff, there are a lot of suspects. Deedra has had sex with most of the single and divorced men in the town, although she seemed unwilling to bed married men.

This story has a very surprising ending. The next installment in this series is Shakespeare's Counselor. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Harris fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of first degree homicide, small Southern towns, and tough women. For anyone not familiar with this series, the initial volume is Shakespeare's Landlord.

-Bill Jordin

The fourth novel in this series was a little predictable, and therefore a little boring, since they've all followed a very similar pattern. I'm also getting a little sick of Lily's judgemental, sanctimonious attitude, whether it's aimed at interracial relationships, mildly adventurous sex, or anything else.

However, Harris's writing tends to make me ignore all that. What I couldn't ignore was the TERRIBLE formatting in the Kindle version. There were typos on nearly every screen, giant spaces where there shouldn't have been, misplaced punctuation marks, and so much more. It's hard to stay focused on a story when you're constantly being distracted by errors.

Check it out from the library, but avoid this awful Kindle version.

First Line: By the time I opened my eyes and yawned that morning, she had been sitting in the car in the woods for seven hours.

Deedra Dean got very little respect in her hometown of Shakespeare, Arkansas. She liked men, and men most definitely liked her. In death, as in life, she was shown no respect: her nude body found in her car on a little-traveled road by the town cleaning lady, Lily Bard.

Lily cleaned Deedra's apartment, so it falls to her to help Deedra's mother empty it. Knowing the dead woman's proclivities, Lily manages to dispose of Deedra's home videos, photos and sex toys before the grieving mother can see and be upset by them. But Lily can't ignore the fact that this murder touches her in a way that others have not. Knowing that the easiest solution would be to pin the crime on one of Deedra's many "beaus", Lily is determined to see that justice is served.

The growth of Lily is the main focus of this series. She had a good career in Memphis, Tennessee until she was kidnapped and brutally raped and disfigured. Afterward, all she wanted to do was hide from all the publicity, heal, and mind her own business. Her body has been healed, and it's now toned and strengthened with karate. She's not afraid of being alone. Lily thought that being a cleaning lady would mean that she could exist beneath most peoples' radar, but instead the job has helped bring her back into the orbit of others. She's slowly made friends and is letting down her defenses enough to try a relationship with someone.

As interesting as the mysteries may be, this series is really all about Lily's journey from the shadows and into the light. Although it's a pity that there's only one more book in the series, if Harris brings this character fully back into the light, it will have been a good journey for both character and reader.

Enter any world of Charlaine Harris and you will be drawn in to every single one of her characters each unique and intriguing. I read her Sookie Stackhouse series first and so enjoyed reading her writing that I picked up the Lily Bard series and was surprised how amazed I was at the quality of this series. Her characters aren't picture perfect or perfect in their actions in any way but the way they are written you care about them and want them to be okay in the end. You want Lily to find peace and have her quiet solitude that she thinks makes her happy yet you are so unsurprised by the fact she will get pulled into things she doesn't intend because it might help someone.

Charlaine has written the whole Lily Bard series so well I highly recommend it. Not only do you love Lily for her past and her present and how she handles and overcomes and deals with anything you would want her for a friend knowing she will help you and listen and be there with her all. Highly recommend the Lily Bard books, she will draw you in and pull at your heart and you will only want success and the best and finally happiness for Lily.