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Shakespeare's Landlord
Charlaine Harris Book Review

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Plot Summary of Shakespeare's Landlord
"To Lily Bard, the small, sleepy town of Shakespeare, Arkansas is the perfect place to hide her past. After being brutally gang raped years before, Lily has painstakingly rebuilt her life. She is now must stronger physically and is gaining confidence in her martial arts studies. However, she still disguises her looks and maintains a low profile. After all, housecleaners aren't exactly noticed. But all of that changes when she witnesses a murder...

Suddenly she is faced with a difficult choice - to share what she has learned with the police and lose her hard-won anonymity and gain unwanted attention or to pretend that she never saw anything. Then her married karate instructor starts showing a passionate interest in her and her plan of a private, well-ordered life comes unhinged. Meanwhile, the killer of an unlamented landlord is lurking nearby. And while Lily knows the inside dirt on her neighbors' dust, drawers and private lives, she must admit to a secret of her own: that in the shadow of a brutal murder, she is coming alive again...

This is a short, well-written mystery that will hook you on the Shakespeare/Lily Bard series written so ably by Charlaine Harris. Lily is a fascinating character as she is so strong/tough and yet has her softer side and her weaknesses. In short, she is human. The way she solves the murder is quite entertaining as she uses her knowledge of cleaning the various locations in Shakespeare to eliminate suspects as she goes along. I found the book to be quite humorous as Lily has a wry, dry sense of humor that is very appealing. I highly recommend this book to mystery buffs and for those who enjoyed any of Mrs. Harris' other books. It is unfortunate that books 2 & 3 in the series are out of print, but if I was able to hunt them down, you can too - its well worth it!


"

Debbie, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of Shakespeare's Landlord
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 10%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%




Tone of story - very upbeat
How difficult to spot villain? - Challenging
Time/era of story: - present (2000-2010)
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 50%
Special suspect? - lover
Murder of certain profession? - businessmen
Misc. Murder Plotlets - Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator - police procedural, American
Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Any non-mystery subplot? - life in small town
Crime Thriller Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status: - servant
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How much violence does he/she use? - just the right amount
Ethnicity/Race - White/American
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - killer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a moderate amount
Motive of antagonist - money/treasure
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest
Small town? Yes
Small town people: - nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee

Style
Part of a series? Yes
Person - mostly 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
How many deaths? - 1
Sex Yes
What kind of sex: - actual description of sex
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Shakespeare's Landlord
Under Abnormal Conditions by Erick D. Burgess
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Summerkill by Maryann Weber
The Cat Who Played Post Office by Lilian Jackson Braun
Without Warning by Tom McCrory


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Charlaine Harris Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR:
  
Debbie  

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