Real Murders (Aurora Teagarden #1) by Charlaine Harris

Real Murders (Aurora Teagarden #1) by Charlaine Harris

This is an adult mystery novel (Rated R)

♥♥♥♥

(Four Fluffy Hearts)

Book Summary

Though a small town at heart, Lawrenceton, Georgia, has its dark side-and crime buffs. One of whom is librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden, a member of the Real Murders Club, which meets once a month to analyze famous cases. It's a harmless pastime -- until the night she finds a member killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss. And as other brutal "copycat" killings follow, Roe will have to uncover the person behind the terrifying game, one that casts all the members of Real Murders, herself included, as prime suspects -- or potential victims.

My Review

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this novel. What I found out, the more and more I read of this author outside of Sookie Stackhouse is she’s not really a romance writer at all. She enjoys writing mystery. I’m beginning to wonder if it was her agent who pushed her to write the sexy Sookie Stackhouse.

I say this because there isn’t much in the way of romance even though a big part of the character development of Aurora is that she’s single and doesn’t want to be. She goes on dates throughout the book, but they are pretty much glossed over. There is no sex, and we barely get a glimpse at a kiss or two. So don’t go in looking for a love or romance story. More on this later.

What we have is a mystery that in a way took me by surprise. If I’d stuck to my initial who done it, I would have been right. But this author fooled me into thinking it was someone else. Bravo.

At the end I was wondering about the relationships semi-formed in the book. It was enough to get me to pick up the next book.

SPOILERS AHEAD – don’t read if you don’t want to know about book 2.

So by the end of this book, we are left to wonder will Roe end up with Arthur or Robin. Guess what, at the very beginning of book two, time has passed and neither guy is in the picture. I think because the author left it as a mystery/cliffy at the end of book 1 who’d she’d end up with, I was annoyed that we didn’t get to “see” what happened with either. So I decide to do a little investigation after she starts to date someone else in book 2. And come to find out this is a theme. At the end of a book, she with one guy and the beginning of the next, she’s moved on. All in all, I DNF’d book 2, not interested in going further. I read enough reviews to know how the 8 book series turns out and there are several plot holes with time passage. Like Roe’s brother is 6 in this book, Roe is 30. By the end of the series, Roe is 35 and her brother is 15. The math doesn’t add up where the brother is concerned. There are other problems in the book. And it’s almost like this author is forced to end the book a certain way and she doesn’t like it. So she does a piss poor job of it, like Sookie’s ending, lol.

END OF SPOILERS

Audio Review

Thérèse Plummer did a good job at narration. I didn’t have a hard trouble following all the different characters.

Overall, I liked this book but can’t recommend the series.

My book boyfriend is Arthur. (same model in both pics)

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