Monday, May 2, 2011

Life's not dull for this diminutive librarian!

Aurora Teagarden Series
Charlaine Harris

Genre: Crime/Mystery
Audience: adults, mainly female
Rating: 3.5/5

Despite the popularity of her "Sookie Stackhouse" series, this is the first Charlaine Harris series I have really sunk my teeth into. There's no werewolves, no vampires, no supernatural creatures what-so-ever. What there is instead is a petite (4'11") librarian with big glasses and a penchant for being in the wrong place at the right time. There's a lot of murders in this small, Southern town in America, Lawrencetown. So much in fact that you start to wonder if everyone is either a future murderer or a murder victim in waiting. To be fair on Aurora, quite a time lapses between each book. Interspersed with the murder-solving is Aurora's tumultuous love life, which has some both amusing and tragic moments.

This series started in the 90s with:

Real Murder:
They thought they'd just be meeting to discuss famous murderers of the past. Little did they know that soon they would be involved in the most dramatic series of murders to be seen in Lawrencetown for many a decade...

Bone to Pick:
An inheritance leaves Aurora with more than just money. And we're not talking about the cat...

Three bedrooms, One Corpse:
A house showing gets gruesome when a Realtor turns up dead...

The Julius House:
This mystery might be 30 years in the grave, but when Aurora acquires the old "Julius house", she's determined to unearth the skeletons in its closet.

Dead over heels:
Aurora may never have got on with him, but that doesn't mean she wanted him dropped in her yard... From a great height and very dead.

A Fool and His Honey:
When Aurora's Niece-in-law turns up with a baby and then disappears a short time later, Aurora is left holding the baby and with another mystery on her hands.

Last Scene Alive:
Hollywood comes to Lawrencetown when Robin Crusoe, mystery writer, returns to film his version of "Real Murders" for tv. But the fantasy soon becomes the reality...

Warning: These books are highly addictive! They're short, quick reads, with a few red herrings and a bit of smut. But you might find yourself like me - chasing around libraries to get the next one so that you can read them all in order (I've still a couple to go).

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