Third Times a Charm...
Customer Rating: 
I have liked the character of Lily Bard from my first introduction to her in "Shakespeare's Landlord". I read with interest both that volume as well as the second book, "Shakespeare's Champion". Honestly, I found them to be just so-so. I thought the charcters were interesting, and Lily's background trauma and personality the meat and bones of each of those novels, much more so than than the actual mysteries within. I was pleasantly suprised with "Shakespeare's Christmas". The mystery of a murdered physician and his nurse and how it related to a missing baby case eight years old was very interesting. We know almost immediately that there are three children who may be this missing baby, living a new life. The process of figuring out which child was stolen, and thereby which parents did what, was more exciting in my opinion, than the first two installments. I also enjoyed seeing a softer side of Lily, as she faces her first trip back home since she left years ago, after suffering a gang rape and mutilations to nearly every part of her body. It was good to see Lily fight to do the right thing in her interactions with her family, and understandable when she needed to leave, get away, and run from all the pitying looks and whispered murmurs. As for the negatives of this book, they are few. I know that "Shakespeare's" always begins the titles but here the book takes place mostly outside of Shakespeare and so I didn't think the title fit as well as the previous ones...And my biggest complaint is that I felt the book ended too suddenly. I thought the mystery wrapped up quite nicely, but I felt we should have seen a final goodbye scene with her parents and sister. Something to show that either everything was fragile, but going to be alright between them, or that nothing had really changed in their complex relationships. If you have been a fan of Charlaine Harris in general or the Lily series in particular I do recommend this one as the best yet.
