Real Murders is the first book in the Aurora Teagarden mystery series by Charlaine Harris. Aurora is a young Southern librarian and a founding member of her small town’s most provocative organization: a club called Real Murders. The Real Murders members meet to discuss famous murder investigations throughout history after they realize their mutual interest after a book signing in town. Unsurprisingly, the macabre nature of the group makes its members prime suspects when a string of murders based on famous slayings throughout history rock their small town life.

Aurora, bookish daughter of the town’s most perfectly poised real estate mogul, has her own suspicions about the murderer (and an uncanny knack for finding unexpected corpses), but with a sexy new neighbor and a romance blooming with an old acquaintance she’s got a full plate of distractions to keep her from the mystery at hand. Will this small-town murder enthusiast be able to solve the crime before another body piles up?

I apologize if this post seems a bit unenthusiastic, but I really couldn’t rustle up anything more jazzy. Real Murders is the start of Charlaine Harris’ first mystery series, and unfortunately, it shows. The plot didn’t really suck me in, the characters didn’t really interest me, and when the mystery was revealed, instead of thinking, “Aha!” I thought, “Huh?” I couldn’t connect the dots between the murderer and the crime while reading the book, and even after Harris explained it, I was still left confused as to how she decided to tie everything together.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this book to Harris fans or mystery lovers. Hopefully Harris releases a new series in the future more along the lines of Sookie’s, because Aurora Teagarden is a poor substitute. While I enjoyed the first book in the Harper Connelley series, Grave Sight, the series kind of fizzled out from there and was also a poor substitute for Sookie.