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kathydavie's review against another edition
5.0
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.
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.
jobustitch's review
3.0
I love the main character Lily and I like the action of this book. I did not like the introduction of the Jack/Jared character. He seems lame as a love interest. But, still a fun, fast read.
klippy's review
5.0
I really love this series -- I did not think I would because everyone talked about how dark it was. Although it is not like the Teagarden series it is really excellent.
teresaalice's review
2.0
The storyline and character development was jumbled and confused, and nowhere near as entertaining as Harris's newer writings. I'm not sure that I need to read the rest of this series at all.
ptothelo's review
2.0
It was fine. It was there. It was darker and more violent than I expected. It was an ok read but I wasn't particularly invested enough to run right out and get the next book.
patchworkbunny's review against another edition
4.0
Things have taken on a darker edge in the second instalment of the Lily Bard Mysteries. The town's champion body builder is found dead at Marshall's gym and all signs point away from accident. With that and the deaths of two others, one a young black man Lily had recently saved in a fight, the racial tension in the town is reaching boiling point.
Shakespeare's Champion started off very much like the first book, with Lily going about her training and cleaning routines and keeping the local men at a distance. However it soon becomes a lot more gripping and I found myself not wanting to put the book down. It feels a lot more like the Sookie stories and I think even if you're disappointed by the lack of supernatural you would still enjoy this series.
Shakespeare's Champion started off very much like the first book, with Lily going about her training and cleaning routines and keeping the local men at a distance. However it soon becomes a lot more gripping and I found myself not wanting to put the book down. It feels a lot more like the Sookie stories and I think even if you're disappointed by the lack of supernatural you would still enjoy this series.
i11iane's review
3.0
Lily's very different from Aurora Teagarden and Sookie Stackhouse. Much more aligned with Harper Connelly. Interaction with Jared / Jack was a bit choppy, I thought. Still, this IS book 2 so I'll cross my fingers she gets a bit more rounded out in the next few books in the series.
bookwormjjb's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I enjoyed this book more than the first. I especially liked how we got a prelude that covered the actual murder. Not just Lily (or somebody else) finding the body. I feel like the actual mystery of this book was handled better than in the pervious one. It also delves into social issues of the time and is racially-charged. Be prepared to read quite a lot of politically incorrect words with characters whose attitudes match. Overall, the story was pretty good. There was a lot more action in this book, with Lily getting her ass handed to her. Which in a way makes her feel more real, it the last book she kept getting the upper hand a bit too easily. I didn't see the ending of this book coming, though the bad guys were pretty aperient. I enjoyed all its twists and turns.
I am glad that her relationship with Marshall didn't last long. Their relationship in the previous book did seem to pop up fairly quickly and he kept on wanting to change her. Lily is a person who needs controlee in and over her life due to her past. Though her relationship with Jack (an undercover detective new in town) also had a quick start. We did get the chance to get to know his character first.
I am glad that her relationship with Marshall didn't last long. Their relationship in the previous book did seem to pop up fairly quickly and he kept on wanting to change her. Lily is a person who needs controlee in and over her life due to her past. Though her relationship with Jack (an undercover detective new in town) also had a quick start. We did get the chance to get to know his character first.
cheesygiraffe's review against another edition
4.0
Much better than the first. Lots more action. I kind of figured out most of it again but not quite all this time.