Shakespeare's Champion

Overview

When Lily stumbles upon the well-built corpse of a local body builder-his neck broken by a barbell-the town's underlying racial tension begins to boil over. The white victim was somehow connected to two unsolved murders of black residents of Shakespeare-and a dogged policeman is determined to stop the killing. But it is Lily herself who may have to decide whether to stay and fight for justice, or run away one more time.

Editorial Reviews

Full of surprises, this second fast-paced and gripping Lily Bard adventure (after Shakespeare's Landlord, 1996) showcases the amateur sleuth's strength, determination and martial arts prowess. Two unsolved murders in two months have already shaken the tiny town of Shakespeare, Ark., when a third person is killed. Lily, who makes ends meet by cleaning houses, finds the body of Del Packard with a 290-pound barbell across his throat at the gym where she works out every day. Lily reasons that all three killings must be connected and are probably racially motivated. Darnell Glass, 18 years old and black, was involved in a fight with a group of white high-school boys; four weeks later, he was found beaten to death. Three weeks after that, Len Elgin, a white farmer, was shot and killed; many think his death was in retaliation for Darnell's murder. The search for a link to Del leads Lily to Howell Winthrop Jr., the owner of Winthrop Sporting Goods, where Del worked. She discovers that a white-supremacist group has secretly been organized among Winthrop's employees, and that Del got in the way. Harris, author of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, plots an engaging puzzler that's propelled smoothly along by Lily's easy, no-frills narration. (Dec.) -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris, who has been writing mysteries for over twenty years, is a native of Mississippi. Born and raised in the Delta, she began training for her career as soon as she could hold a pencil. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and (later) teenage angst, she began writing plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, and graduated to books a few years later. After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris decided to establish a series. She began the lighthearted Aurora Teagarden books with Real Murders, which garnered an Agatha nomination. Harris's protagonist, a diminutive Georgia librarian whose life never turns out quite the way she planned, kept Harris busy for several books, but finally Harris (and Aurora) grew restless. The result of this restlessness was the much edgier Shakespeare series -- set not in England, but in rural Arkansas. The heroine of the Shakespeare books is Lily Bard, a tough and taciturn woman whose life has been permanently reshaped by a terrible crime and its consequences. In Shakespeare's Landlord, the first in the series, Lily is caught at a moment when the shell she's built around herself is just beginning to crack, and the books capture Lily's emotional re-entry into the world, while also being sound mysteries. Harris's latest venture is a series about a telepathic barmaid in southern Louisiana. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony for best paperback mystery of 2001. Each book about Sookie Stackhouse (and her dealings with vampires and werewolves and other creatures of the night) has gathered more readers to enjoy the books' unique blend of mystery, humor, romance, and the supernatural. The Sookie books are also being read in Japan, Spain, Greece, and Great Britain. In addition to her work as a writer, Harris is married and the mother to three children. A former weight lifter and karate student, she is an avid reader and cinemaphile. She is a member of the vestry of St. James Episcopal Church. Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League. She is a member of the board of Sisters in Crime, and alternates with Joan Hess as president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance. (c) 2004 Charlaine Harris

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Additional Info

Imprint

Berkley

Filesize

709.24 KB

Number of Pages

224

eBook ISBN

9781429529594