19. Real Murders

by Charlaine Harris

Harris is better known these days for her Southern Vampire Series which has been adapted into an HBO series called "True Blood." I've read that entire series, aside from the newest, and although I found them fun, I didn't come away terribly impressed with Harris.

Later, I discovered that Harris had an earlier carrier as a midlist mystery writer. She has a couple other series going and it was only a matter of time before I tracked them down. Real Murders is the debut title for the Aurora Teagarden series. This is a straight up mystery series. There are no vampires, ghosts, or paranormal powers of any kind. Nor was there any racy sex, though the possibility exists for some title later down the line.

Real Murders is also a much better book than any of the Southern Vampire Series. The mystery is well plotted, all of the characters behave in reasonable ways, and I didn't find myself working for the suspension of disbelief. This leads me to conclude that Harris, as much as I enjoy Sookie Stackhouse and her tawdry vampire love triangles, needs to go back to mystery writing.

The protagonist, Aurora Teagarden, is a young librarian with a mousey dresscode and a significant lack of ambition. She has her routines and her books. She also is a member of a club called "Real Murders" which is a group of people obsessed with the study of real crimes. The action starts when people connected to club members are murdered in ways that mimic famous murders. Events send long time friends through a maze of suspicion and doubt.

It's good. The ultimate resolution makes sense and fits the facts as they are presented. While it could of used a little more groundwork to really sell the perps as villains, it's a minor concern.