Review: SHAKESPEARE’S TROLLOP

Shakespeare’s Trollop by Charlaine Harris
Book 4 of the Lily Bard mysteries
Narrated by Julia Gibson
Genre: murder mystery
Format: hardback omnibus & audiobook

About Shakespeare’s Trollop:

The Barnes & Noble Review
Welcome back to Shakespeare, a charming little place in rural Arkansas filled with eccentric characters, small-town secrets, and captivating criminal conundrums. For more than four years now, Lily Bard has made her home in Shakespeare, cleaning houses for a living and honing her fighting skills at the local karate dojo. It hasn’t been easy for Lily to put her tragic past behind her, but after years of prickly isolation she’s finally beginning to build some real relationships. She has a lover she adores and friends who are more than sparring partners.

Then one day, while walking down an unmarked road, an unexpected flash of bright red catches her eye, and Lily immediately senses that something is very wrong. Her worst fears come to pass when the flash of red turns out to be a car holding the naked remains of Deedra Dean, one of Lily’s cleaning clients and a lifelong Shakespeare resident with a well-earned reputation for cheerful amateur promiscuity.

Source: Info in the About Shakespeare’s Christmas was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32513.Shakespeare_s_Christmas 14/05/2012.

Narrative Evaluation:

This being Book 4 in a series, I have said most of what I can say about this book in my reviews of the first three books. The same small town murder. And it is now starting to feel like same old, same old… The main saving grace of this book is Charlaine Harris‘ masterful story telling ability. So if you have become addicted to her books, this book is a good dose to feed your addiction. Elsewise, there is naught much different. So, what can I say about this book…. As soon as I read the title, I just knew that Deedra would play a prominent part in this book, and I was not wrong. Having said that, this book is not predictable though. The plot throws a loop which is a nice surprise! Another thing about this series is that, good thing that Charlaine Harris is such a good story teller, otherwise her books would never sell. What, with the cover arts quite dull-looking, would never trigger my book buying radar if I was browsing the book shelves in a bookshop. I think Ms. Harris really got shanked in the cover art department. And then, I thought I would get used to the narrator by now, this being Book 4 and many, many listening hours later. And I kind of did. However, Julia Gibson still sounds boring and monotonous to my ears though…

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4
Story itself = 4
Ending = 4
World building = 4.5
Cover art = 1.5
Pace (audiobook) = N/A (approximately 7 hours of listening time)
Narrator = 2

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

Thank you to the RCT Library for letting me borrow this book!!

FTC Disclosure:
This audiobook was borrowed from the library. The hardback omnibus was purchased with private funds. No money received for this review.

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