2012: #24 – Real Murders (Charlaine Harris)

Title: Real Murders
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Aurora Teagarden #01
Format: Audio
Length: 6 hrs 7 min
Release Date: October 05, 2010
Publisher: Berkley
Categories: cozy mystery
Source: personal copy
Rating: 4 out of 5

Back of the book:

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 thoughts:

This is one of Charlaine Harris’s non-paranormal series, and I liked it quite a bit. Roe Teagarden is our mild-mannered librarian heroine – tiny, bespectacled, and unable to keep her nose out of other people’s business. Though when she’s the one to find the body of one of her fellow Real Murders Club members prior to a meeting, it’s hard to argue that it’s not her business too.

Through Roe, we meet her other true-crime-obsessed associates and try to figure out which one could possibly be the killer. We also get a little bit of a love triangle, as Roe finds herself attracted to not only the detective assigned to the case, but her new neighbor, a crime novelist. In true cozy mystery fashion, the characters in Lawrenceton are quite colorful.

Definitely a series I will be continuing.

Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | WorldCat

Other reviews:

• “This story has none of the trademark features of Harris’s writing that make her books so appealing to me: the charming evocation of life in the South; engaging portraits of quirky characters; snappy writing with humorous turns; and romantic interludes that are creatively complicated.” — Rhapsody in Books
• “This page turning novel kept me guessing who the killer was right up until the end.” — Cozy Book Reviews
• ” I mean it was okay in the end, but I felt as if it was missing something, I don’t really know how to describe my feelings though.” — Tales of a Book Addict

Past reviews:

2011: The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson)
2010: Shakespeare’s Landlord (Charlaine Harris)
2009: The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (Dinaw Mengestu)
2008: The Death of Vishnu (Manil Suri)
2007: Mistral’s Kiss (Laurell K. Hamilton)
2006: Micah (Laurell K. Hamilton)
2005: The Vile Village (Lemony Snicket)