Shakespeare’s Landlord by Charlaine Harris: First of all, forget old Willie; the title comes from Shakespeare, Arkansas, where our story takes place. The landlord in question is the murder victim. The protagonist is Lily Bard, a standoffish housecleaner with a dark past, whose only hobbies appear to be working out at the gym, taking martial arts classes, and obsessing over whether or not people have learned her secrets. When she happens to see the body being transported using her garbage cart one dark evening she quickly discovers that she must find the killer in order to prevent her secrets from being blasted all over town. As this is the first book in a series, we are introduced to tons of characters and even a couple of potential love interests, neither of which are particularly interesting. The cover art made me think it would be a touch more light-hearted, but in the end it’s a somewhat humdrum murder mystery with just barely enough suspense to keep the reader involved. The ending was too predictable to justify the lead-up, but I won’t say that I necessarily saw it coming from a mile away either. It was fine as a quick gym read, keeping my attention while I was on the stationary bike, but I won’t be reading any more in the series.

Also posted on BookCrossing.