Real Murders

Real Murders
by Charlaine Harris

Having been a fan of two of Harris' other series (Sookie Stackhouse and Harper Connelly), and having had the Aurora Teagarden series highly recommended to me by other fans of "cozy" mysteries, I was looking forward to this first volume in Roe's adventures. In the end, I came away with mixed feelings. In Real Murders, small-town librarian Aurora Teagarden is a member of a "book club"-like group that examines "true crime" cases in detail and hypothesizes about potential solutions to unsolved murder cases. When members of that group start showing up dead -- murdered in ways that mimic real-life murder cases -- Aurora begins to investigate, with the help of two beaus...a sturdy but unremarkable burglary detective, and a bestselling mystery author who's just moved to town. I found the first two third's of the novel to be a letdown -- fairly simplistic characterizations and dialog. However, the final third of the book really kicked things into gear and I got a lot more involved in caring about Aurora and her life. For what had been a modern cozy for most of the book, there's a surprisingly violent twist near the end that may shock cozy readers. In the end, despite being initially disappointed, I ended up liking this one and look forward to reading more in the Aurora Teagarden series. [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the rest of the Aurora Teagarden series or the Death on Demand series by Carolyn G. Hart.] -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[Also available in book-on-cd format.]

[ official Aurora Teagarden page on the official Charlaine Harris web site ]

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