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Lily Bard cleans houses and does other domestic chores for a wide variety of people in Shakespeare, Arkansas. She works out and trains at a local dojo, owned by Marshall Sedaka, a man with whom she has history. When Del Packard is found dead at Body Time, and his death is determined to be murder, Lily has some vested interest in finding out who dropped almost 300 pounds onto Del’s neck. There have been some recent murders in Shakespeare, unsolved at this point. One is obviously racially motivated; one may or may not be. Flyers promoting a white supremacy group are appearing on car windshields. A black church is bombed as a meeting about the flyers is breaking up. Several people are killed, others are wounded. Lily is not happy; Shakespeare is her home and her refuge. Now she is unnerved by a stranger in town, a stranger with a history as public as her own past, and by the fact that she is no longer sure of her neighbors. People she has known for several years are not what they seem to be (true anywhere). Lily resents this involuntary (on her part) realignment of her world. SHAKESPEARE'S CHAMPION is the second in the Bard series. Lily changes a little in each book, changes that are consistent with her history and her personality. She is a very strong woman, physically and psychologically, with lots of baggage. Shakespeare is not an unusual small town; Harris captures the insularity and the xenophobia so common to towns such as this. The Bard series is a little edgier than Harris’s Teagarden series, but still sits pretty firmly in the cozy category. There is no woo-woo in this series, unlike Harris’s two most recent series. I’ll gladly read anything Charlaine Harris writes, so I must admit to liking Lily Bard and her life just about the best . . . unless I’m reading a Sookie Stackhouse. Then I’m torn.
Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, December 2006
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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