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    Shakespeare's Champion
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    Shakespeare's Champion
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    Shakespeare's Champion
    Audiobook7 hours

    Shakespeare's Champion

    Written by Charlaine Harris

    Narrated by Julia Gibson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    When Lily Bard stumbles upon the corpse of a local bodybuilder, the town's old racial tensions begin to boil over.

    The white victim was somehow connected to two unsolved murders of black residents of Shakespeare, but a resolute policeman is determined to stop the killings. Although it is Lily who has to decide whether to stay and fight for justice, or run away one more time...

    A W. F. Howes audio production.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Audio
    Release dateDec 1, 2010
    ISBN9781407468372
    Unavailable
    Shakespeare's Champion
    Author

    Charlaine Harris

    Charlaine Harris is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over thirty years. She was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area. She has written four series, and two stand-alone novels, in addition to numerous short stories, novellas, and graphic novels (cowritten with Christopher Golden). Her Sookie Stackhouse books have appeared in twenty-five different languages and on many bestseller lists. They’re also the basis of the HBO series True Blood. Harris now lives in Texas, and when she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously. Her house is full of rescue dogs.

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    Reviews for Shakespeare's Champion

    3.5/5

    423 ratings17 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Lily Bard, maid, martial artist, rape survivor, lives in Shakespeare, AR, desperately rebuilding her shattered life. While so doing, a number of heinous hate crimes are occurring in Shakespeare, and somehow she ends up in the middle of them. Ultimately, justice is served. Now here's the rub - while I love independent females, I don't find Lily Bard particularly likable. I find her annoying and prefer the characters of Bobo and Jack to Lily, even the character of Mookie I find more appealing. It's a good read, it's a fast read, but it's not a character I am going to latch onto.
    • 3/5
      Another fun, quick mystery from Harris. I'm liking Lily better all the time. She's a little weird, but she beats the rest of Harris' heroines hands down, including Sookie.
    • 4/5
      Another great installment in the Lily Bard series! I enjoy the fact that Lily Bard is such a strong character, but yet realistic, human at the same time. I could relate to Lily's frequent gym workouts in this book, and she had a way of using her fitness, strength, and agility when the going got tough.
    • 2/5
      What? This is like a completely different series. I wonder if she was writing this and one of her Sookie books at the same time. There were some weird parallels in the events of the books (this one sans the paranormal twist) and it just didn't seem to fit. Also, the characters kept mentioning an event that I was kicking myself for not remembering from the first book, when halfway through the book we're finally told what happened--and it wasn't in the first book. I guess it was just supposed to be some sort of hook but it made other portions of the plot difficult to sort out.
    • 4/5
      Another good book from Charlaine Harris. For people who know her only as the author of the Sookie Stackhouse books, and may have steered clear because of a distaste for the paranormal mystery, to the best of my recollection there is nothing supernatural in the Lily Bard series, just good stories with good writing and strong characters. Definitely recommended.
    • 3/5
      This book was better than the first "Shakespeare's Landlord". I really like the character of Lily and the mystery wasn't bad. I enjoy most of the characters and Lily's community for the most part. This series is far too dark to be considered a cozy although a lot of people seem to classify it as one. There wasn't any great suprises here; nor was it boring. I'd like to see Lily get some of her happiness back; she just seems like a fairly unhappy person...I understand her background and the reason for it is logical but it'd be nice to see some good things happen to her. I wish I could say more about this story but in my opinion it was good, not great. There is nothing specifically bad about it, nor anything amazingly positive either.
    • 4/5
      I do really like this series by Charlaine Harris. More adventures of housecleaner, rape victim, super karate, Taikwando (sp?) champion Lily Bard, and her various beaux. Set in Arkansas it also shows a not so nice side of southern rednecks and their racial prejudices. Lily's not a person I can warm up to, but then she doesn't want anyone to warm up to her. She's very much a loner, having been so damaged earlier in life that she's taking things very slowly, and not letting anyone get too close to her.The immediate dead body in this one is a fellow weight lifter found dead at the gym, but there are other murders from prior times that are drawn into the web of investigation. Several new characters, several from before, and some fantastic fight scenes. I'm not into martial arts, but I have no trouble following Harris' excellent description of Lily's interactions with the bad guys.Good plot, great characters, and a terrific ending. this is a series that is entertaining enough for anyone liking a southern setting, a strong woman, and cops who are actually competent.
    • 4/5
      Lily Bard finds murder and romance.
    • 4/5
      Lily Bard Mysteries are about a House cleaner and others odd jobs. Lily years ago was attacked raped and has scars physcal and mental. To cope she takes Karate classes, weight lifting and when she cant sleep long walks at night by herself. She does not get to close to others. Her family lives away from her by her choice.Her karate and owner of the gym is sometime her lover. Is sick with flu and asks her to open the gym for him till he can get somone to work. while she is finding the right key Bobo 18 arrives to work and they go in and find a dead body.thier is a lot of race tention in town with a death of a black youth and later a white guy. one thing at starting trouble was a gang of white guys attacking one black kid, and even though two officers where their they did not try and stop so lily steped in and caused some pain and a black marine also tried to break it up. Lily did not care if they where black or white side she just did not want to see a gang take one person.then a black church is bombed at a meeting and lily is thier one of few white people thier.so everyone is wondering where she stands and she gets into a few different situations. finds out who did the murder and why and meets a PI and helps him.good clean book.
    • 4/5
      Starts out rough, but after three or four chapters becomes a really enjoyable read. Light and fluffy but good for when you have a cold or otherwise don't want to think too much.
    • 4/5
      Back in Shakespeare a body is found by Lily in the gym she works at. It was a bodybuilder and is clearly murder when his spotter strangled him with a set of weights. It seems to have been sparked by race relationships in the small town. Much unrest is mixed up between those of different colour and Lily gets in the middle defending a young black man despite her being white and her loyalties are questioned. One of her cleaning bosses hired Jack Leeds to identify the ringleaders in the race issue. He believes they are connected to one of the businesses he runs and Jack goes undercover to lure them out. Lily breaks his cover though when she resognises him from the papers around her ordeal and we find out Jack's own painful past. They develop a bond having had so much negative media and they may just be able to pull each other through the town's difficulties.Lily is a very different main character to Roe who I have spent more time with. I think I prefer Lily though, she is just a little more complicated which I like. There is a bit more to her despite her sad past. This book tackles some sensitive issues and it was done well. I look forward to getting to know Lily and Jack better in more of the series.
    • 5/5
      Love Lily Bard mysteries, like Jack, Lily's new love interest
    • 4/5
      I haven't read the first of the Lily Bard mystery novels (still on hold at the library), but I enjoyed the second one nonetheless. It's a little grimmer than what I ususally like to read, with a surprising noir feel for a novel set in a small Arkansas town, but the plot is good, the heroine likeable and unique, and the setting well drawn. This will never be a favorite for me (I, apparently, like a bit more humor with my murder), but it's worth the read.
    • 4/5
      I love this series, and I cannot wait until I can get back to the characters in it, and the town! I love that Lily is starting to warm up, open up, and make actual friends. Letting people in will be the first part of healing! but she is getting badly hurt, yet again, and I wish she didn't have to, all the time. The new boyfriend is quite nice, and sounds H-O-T as well. ;) I will be continuing with these books until the library runs out of them!
    • 4/5
      This is the second book in the Lily Bard Mystery series. I'm really beginning to like Lily cuz she kicks ass! :P Granted, I may not always agree with her "need to be alone" attitude but I can understand where it comes from. Like the other reviewers, I liked this one a bit more than the first one as there was definitely more action here, and more setup there.
    • 4/5
      This series is a little different than some of Harris’s other series, because there’s no paranormal element. Lily is a regular girl, at least genetically. Socially, she likes to keep to herself. Her stand-offishness and dedication to staying strong and in shape is understandable, because Lily is the survivor of a brutal attack. But it’s not doing her any favors.That dedication to her exercise routine (and on-again-off-again relationship with gym owner Marshall) leads to her discovery of a man’s body in the local gym. Lily’s natural curiosity is peaked when it appears that his death isn’t an accident, and she spends the novel trying to figure out not only what happened, but how she can stop it from continuing.Small-town racial tension is the main theme that runs through this mystery. Lily, who still feels like an outsider despite living in Shakespeare for more than a few years, navigates her way through thanks to her job as a housekeeper — a brilliant way to be an amateur sleuth. Unfortunately, I think she finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time a little too often. Really, it’s a fault of the first person perspective. The only way we have to witness these events is through Lily’s eyes, so she needs to be there.I did enjoy the introduction of a new love interest for Lily. Her back and forth with the police chief was getting a little tiresome, and Jack seems like a better fit for her anyhow.Despite its flaws, I do like this series and will continue to follow Lily’s adventures.
    • 4/5
      Shakespeare's Champion
      4.5 Stars

      Still waters run deep in Shakespeare, Arkansas and when Lily Bard finds the corpse of the local body building champion, little does she know that the discovery will uncover a web of the most heinous evil in her seemingly innocuous small town.

      The second installment in this cozy mystery series is just as appealing as the first, although the mystery is definitely darker and more violent with several truly sad and shocking moments. At this point, it is necessary to provide a warning that the book deals with issues of race, which some readers may find offensive. Personally, I believe that these topics should be faced head on and treated realistically (which they are here) for to deny that prejudice and evil exist, or to conceal them out of misplaced sense of political correctness, is to allow them to grow and to fester.

      Now that that is out of the way …

      Charlaine Harris is a very skilled writer who makes even the most mundane of activities, such as house cleaning and gym workouts seem exciting. Her character development is also excellent and each of the residents of Shakespeare, good, bad or ugly, is fleshed out well and contributes to both the small town atmosphere and the message inherent in the story.

      In terms of the romance, there is a significant improvement as Lily parts ways with her uninspired love interest from book #1 and closes the door on another potential beau (which was a little disappointing as he is quite sweet). Instead, she becomes involved with a rather mysterious stranger who turns out to have scars of his own and is a much better fit for Lily’s tough and stalwart persona. It is obvious that she would eat any other less dominant man alive.

      Julia Gibson’s narration makes for pleasant listening and she does a good job with the male and female voices. There are still some gaps between sections (albeit shorter than in book 1) and Gibson does swallow audibly one or two times, which is distracting.

      In sum, this is a very enjoyable sequel and Lily with her mix of strength and vulnerability is a lovely character.