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annathepiperCharlaine Harris has clearly gotten famous enough with the success of True Blood that her publishers are going all out to reprint her older work as well. So I picked up a copy of Real Murders, the first book of her Aurora Teagarden mystery series, just to check it out.
This book was originally published in 1990, and it's a very different read than the Sookie Stackhouses, or even the Lily Bards. We are well and thoroughly into the realm of the cozy mystery here; our heroine, Roe, is about as cozy-mystery-heroine as it's possible to get. She's a librarian, self-described as 'intellectual' and 'drab', yet a member of a club called "Real Murders", which meets regularly to analyze murder cases of different eras. It's quite the most excitement she ever has in her life--until someone starts committing murders deliberately staged to match cases the club members have discussed. And Roe, lucky, lucky Roe, keeps coming across the bodies.
Bodies, plural, because there are indeed multiple murders committed; this strikes me as a touch unusual for a cozy, especially given Harris doesn't pull her punches in her descriptions of grim scenes. (Though she doesn't go over the top, either; the amount of grimness we get is exactly right.) Set off against this is an unsurprising initial stages of a rivalry for Roe's affections, as she has two different men interested in her.
All in all it's not as tight a book as the Sookies and the Lilys, which come later in her writing career. But it's pretty enjoyable and a quick read. Three stars.
This book was originally published in 1990, and it's a very different read than the Sookie Stackhouses, or even the Lily Bards. We are well and thoroughly into the realm of the cozy mystery here; our heroine, Roe, is about as cozy-mystery-heroine as it's possible to get. She's a librarian, self-described as 'intellectual' and 'drab', yet a member of a club called "Real Murders", which meets regularly to analyze murder cases of different eras. It's quite the most excitement she ever has in her life--until someone starts committing murders deliberately staged to match cases the club members have discussed. And Roe, lucky, lucky Roe, keeps coming across the bodies.
Bodies, plural, because there are indeed multiple murders committed; this strikes me as a touch unusual for a cozy, especially given Harris doesn't pull her punches in her descriptions of grim scenes. (Though she doesn't go over the top, either; the amount of grimness we get is exactly right.) Set off against this is an unsurprising initial stages of a rivalry for Roe's affections, as she has two different men interested in her.
All in all it's not as tight a book as the Sookies and the Lilys, which come later in her writing career. But it's pretty enjoyable and a quick read. Three stars.