Lily Bard chose the quiet Arkansas town of Shakespeare to escape as the name appealed to her on the map. She’s suffered in the past and wishes to keep it there, so she busies herself with her cleaning job and keeping out of trouble. Until one night she sees a body being dumped in the park near her home. Being a cleaning lady she is privy to the secrets of many and her curiosity leads her to investigate further.

I do like Charlaine Harris’s easy-going writing style and this was a enjoyable light read. Maybe a few too many pages dedicated to cleaning and working out at the gym for my liking though it did guilt me into putting the book down and doing some cleaning myself! There weren’t really enough clues for me to have formed an opinion on who-dunnit so the end was surprising but not in a wholly satisfying way. I will accept that the first instalment of a series needs to set up the characters and I definitely want to read more about them, especially that dishy policeman across the street!

For those of you used to Charlaine’s supernatural books, this is a pure mystery (though I’m sure Lily popped up in one of the Sookie books briefly).