The town's doctor and nurse have been bludgeoned to death at the office. And Lily's detective boyfriend suddenly shows up at her parents' door. Jack Leeds is investigating an eight-year-old kidnapping and the trail leads straight to Lily's hometown. It just might have something to do with the murders...and her sister's widowed fiancé. With only three days before the wedding, Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister commits...marriage!
I've heard so many wonderful things about the writings of Charlaine Harris, but I just couldn't get into the Sookie Stackhouse series. Vampires aren't my thing. So, I was excited when I discovered that she has also penned a cozy mystery series featuring Lily Bard - set in Shakespeare, Arkansas. (Ya gotta love a writer with a wry sense of humor.) I started with #3 in the series, Shakespeare's Christmas, because that's the one I found in my recent browse through The Dusty Bookshelf in Manhattan - And I loved it. Although there was some back-story that would have filled in some blanks, I didn't have any trouble following along without reading the first two books.
That back-story is just what will make Shakespeare's Christmas (and the rest of the series) appeal to Cozy fans - characters that you get to know slowly and familiar places to be re-visited. However, it also appealed to the "thriller reader" side of me because it moved at a faster pace than the average cozy and left the reader to piece together clues on their own rather than relying on rambling sections of the heroine's thoughts as she does all the detective work. Fast, fun holiday read that will have me looking for more Charlaine Harris books.
I loved this series. Also, I could not get into Sookie at all, although I read Lily first. I found this series a little darker than I imagine most cozies are, but I prefer a little darker. A 5 book series is also nice - it feels like the author had a plan for her character, and it ends.
ReplyDeleteNice review! I'm not into vampires either. I have a few of her Shakespeare books kicking around here somewhere (including this one), but haven't read any of them yet. Maybe I'll give this one a try before Christmas. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteGood review! I hadn't heard of her as an author or her series; but I think this one does look interesting!!
ReplyDeletehave a good weekend!
betty
I never could get into Sookie either but I've got to imagine that the lady can write to convince so many people to stay with a series for so long. And I do like a cozy mystery. Thanks for bringing this one to my attention!
ReplyDeleteI just read the first one and did like that she gave you a real chance to figure it out for yourself!
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