Hello Fellow Book Lovers!
I have sat down at my desk for the past few days to write this post, and just haven’t been able to do it. I have the quarantine blues, coupled with the rainy day blues. All productivity went out the window–bye grading, bye assignments, bye exercise motivation.
However, the sun has been out the past couple of days, and magically, with it comes my desire to do anything.
On the review list today is Real Murders by Charlaine Harris. In case you don’t recognize the name, Harris also wrote all of the True Blood books! Unlike True Blood however, this series (of which Real Murders is the first) does not include any supernatural elements. The story follow Aurora “Roe” Teagarden, a librarian and true crime aficionado in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Roe is a member of the Real Murders Society–a group of people who meet once a month to discuss interesting cases. One night before a meeting, a member of the society is murdered. As more bodies pile up, Roe takes it upon herself to solve this mystery–with the help of a police detective and a mystery writer.
The Hallmark channel has turned this series into a series of made-for-tv movies titled “The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries.” Prior to reading Real Murders, I had already watched the movie version…primarily because I had no idea these books even existed! If you are into Hallmark movies, you will probably enjoy this series–I enjoyed watching it more than I have with others. It is worth noting, however, that the Hallmark people decided, for whatever reason, to flip the first two titles when making the movies. Therefore, the first book of the series is actually the second movie, and the second book is the first movie. Why? Who knows.
Now for the review. My rating system on Instagram involves the flashlight emoji, which I am unable to recreate here but I give Real Murders three flashlights (out of five flashlights haha). While my reading/enjoyment was slightly hindered since I had seen the tv movie version and I kept comparing the two, I thought it was an all-around decent book. I didn’t want to stop reading–always a good sign. I enjoyed the characters and the mystery was engaging. At times the dialogue seemed forced, but Harris also does a good job with setting the scene. If you are a fan of the cozy mystery, definitely give this one a go. If you like the Hallmark tv movie versions, try the books! I’m looking forward to reading the second book in the series. 🙂
I have a lot of reviews to catch up on for the month of May (and perhaps one from April), so stay tuned!
The Bookish Bird 