Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Book Review: Real Murders by Charlaine Harris (An Aurora Teagarden Mystery)


Book Review: Real Murders By Charlaine Harris

(An Aurora Teagarden Mystery)


I was always a voracious reader and books my best friends since childhood.
I am partial towards mystery and thriller genre and have been a huge Agatha Christie fan all my life.

So I am always on a lookout for any interesting and good fast paced mysteries to read.

Being huge fan of Full House and subsequently Fuller House on Netflix, I read about Candance Cameron Bure working in Aurora Teagarden mysteries as part of Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Original.
Intrigued, I googled regarding the books on which the series was based and the author Charlaine Harris since I had not read any of her books.
I saw couple of movies and really liked the protagonist and the story line and decided to read the books.

About the Author(Taken from Wikipedia) : Charlaine Harris is an American author who specializes in mysteries. She is best known for the adaptations of her series The Southern Vampire Series, which was adapted as the TV series True Blood
Harris began the lighthearted Aurora Teagarden books with Real Murders, nominated as a Best Novel 1990 for the Agatha Awards

Book Review

Book : Real Murders
Author : Charlaine Harris
Published : 1990

The first book " Real Murders" in the series has an interesting premise and would definitely appeal to all fans of mystery genre.
In this book, we are introduced to the protagonist "Aurora Teagarden"or Roe as she is popularly known. Roe works as a librarian in a Lawrenceton, Georgia, a growing suburb of Atlanta. She is a member of club called Real Murders, consisting of 12 people interested in crime and murder who meet once a month to analyze historic famous murder cases.
The members comprise of interesting mix of people in the town and are known to Aurora.
The book begins with Aurora preparing to discuss a famous murder " the Wallace case" in the monthly meet of Real Murders scheduled that evening.
When she reaches early, she discovers the dead body of a fellow member and even more shocking is the fact that the murderer has staged the dead body to resemble the famous " the Wallace case" which she was supposed to discuss that very night.
So begins series of copy cat murders resembling the famous murders to be discussed by Real Murders club members making all members a potential killers or targets and confounding Aurora, who must use her sleuthing skills to uncover the murderer before it is too late.

Fast paced and racy, the book had me hooked and needless to say that I just couldn't put it down and finished it in one go. Incidentally its my first buy on my own Kindle.

The premise and plot are extremely interesting and the author has sketched the details of the small town and all the prominent characters of the disapproving mother, fellow librarian, friends and policeman very well.
I personally loved the small town charm and feel and the detailing of characters which reminded me somewhat of Miss Marple and her small town folks.

I understand that there is a series of 2 hour movies done by Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Original based on the books and I would recommend reading the books and watching the same.