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

Harris, Charlaine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312262280 ISBN 13: 9780312262280

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2000

Synopsis

Welcome back to Shakespeare - a charming Arkansas town with endless back roads, an eclectic mix of residents, and a dollop of noir. Featuring cleaning woman/karate expert Lily Bard, Charlaine Harris's series puts a unique spin on the traditional cozy to create mysteries that "work on every level. The writing and plotting are first rate [and] Lily is appealing in her own prickly way" --Washington Times

In the latest installment, Lily discovers lifelong Shakespeare resident Deedra Dean murdered inside a car parked in a woodsy area outside town. Determined not to get involved, Lily wants to leave the police work to Sheriff Marta Schuster and her team of deputies, and concentrate on cleaning, high kicks, and her boyfriend Jack's impending visit. But when Deedra's notoriously promiscuous lifestyle provides an extensive list of suspects but very few clues, Lily has no choice but to resume the roll of amateur detective and join the investigation.

In this fourth book in Charlaine Harris's highly acclaimed and darkly compelling series, Lily Bard delivers a hard-hitting mix of Southern charm and street smarts, a combination so alluring that long-time readers and newcomers will be dying to visit Shakespeare again.

About this title

About the Author

Charlaine Harris is also the author of the acclaimed Aurora Teagarden mystery series, most recently A Fool and His Honey. Born in Mississippi, she now lives in Magnolia, Arkansas.

Reviews

"There's nothing more revealing about people than the mess they leave for someone else," says Lily Bard, who has the perfect job for an amateur sleuth—she's a cleaning lady in the small, close-knit town of Shakespeare, Ark. A detached and wary observer of others, Lily reluctantly finds herself investigating the murder of one of her employers, Deedra Dean, in her latest engaging outing (after 1998's Shakespeare's Christmas). It's Lily's misfortune to discover Deedra's violated body in her car on a deserted road, the apparent victim of a tryst gone sour. For Lily, who already knows more than she wants about the promiscuous young woman's habits, the details don't add up. Since many of her other clients are related to Deedra, Lily endures their catty, sometimes malicious gossip, but when she helps Deedra's mother clean out the dead woman's apartment, she quietly disposes of Deedra's collection of compromising photos and videos. The nature of the crime forces Lily to deal with her own scars, legacies of the brutal abduction and rape in Memphis that sent her scrambling for the tranquil environs of Shakespeare. A wise, self-counseled soul, as well as a skilled karate student and fitness buff, Lily is just foolhardy enough to charge into a burning house to save a frail, mean old man. Indeed, Lily has such an engaging voice, full of pain and redemption, that the collecting of clues and the unfolding of the crime take a back seat to her personal story. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Lily Bard studies the minutiae of the people whose houses she cleans in Shakespeare, Arkansas. A horrific episode in her own past keeps her wary and private, so she is even more than normally chastened by finding the body of Deedra Dean, naked and violated, in a car in the woods. Deedra was free with herself, and nearly every male in Shakespeare had taken from her, but it's too easy to focus on her taste for male companionship in seeking her murderer, especially when rumors of videotapes and sex toys surface. Lily, meanwhile, is trying to resolve not only Deedra's death but also its resonance in her own psyche and her need, barely acknowledged but deep as water, for Jack, the man in her life. Lily is a terrific character with dark shadings and stark fears, but learning strength and cleaving to it. A supporting cast of quirky characters fully rendered in quick strokes will hold readers as surely as the complex resolution in this cozy on the bleeding edge of noir. GraceAnne A. DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312262280
• ISBN 13: 9780312262280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288