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    Real Murders: Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 1
    Unavailable
    Real Murders: Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 1
    Unavailable
    Real Murders: Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 1
    Audiobook6 hours

    Real Murders: Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 1

    Written by Charlaine Harris

    Narrated by Thérèse Plummer

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Librarian Aurora Teagarden reckons she knows everything about her fellow townsfolk, including which ones share her interest in the darker side of human nature, as she and her friends have formed a club to discuss real life killings.

    But fiction soon becomes fact as more and more bodies are discovered, and the similarities between prior murders and those of Aurora's fellow townsfolk become frighteningly common.

    A W. F. Howes audio production.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Audio
    Release dateDec 1, 2010
    ISBN9781407468273
    Unavailable
    Real Murders: Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, Book 1
    Author

    Charlaine Harris

    Charlaine Harris is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over thirty years. She was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area. She has written four series, and two stand-alone novels, in addition to numerous short stories, novellas, and graphic novels (cowritten with Christopher Golden). Her Sookie Stackhouse books have appeared in twenty-five different languages and on many bestseller lists. They’re also the basis of the HBO series True Blood. Harris now lives in Texas, and when she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously. Her house is full of rescue dogs.

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    Reviews for Real Murders

    3.5/5

    705 ratings75 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I have read some of the Sookie Stackhouse series and the Harper Connelly series, so I thought I would try this one. I thought the premise of the murders was very interesting. People who enjoy reading about true murder mysteries suddenly caught up in one of their own. I liked the main character, Roe, but she seemed to have a boring life, other than getting caught up in this mystery. It also seemed odd that she complained of a lack of a social life, but in this book she suddenly gets two men who are both interested in dating her.

      There are lots of suspicious characters and I did not guess who the killer was. The theme seemed to be that serial killers are crazy and don't usually have a good reason for killing. And that serial killers are very good at living among us and not arousing our suspicions.

      Overall this was a fun, not too demanding read. I will probably read some more from this series in the future.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this mystery. Lots of strange interesting characters and a real mystery. I didn't know who did it until the reveal, which was truly a surprise. I don't know if I will continue to read books in this series but it is certainly a possibility. I saw a Hallmark movie of one of the books from this series and I had a dim view of how I would like the book but it really was the movie that was the problem -- very blah. Book is much better. Fast read. Well-written.
    • 4/5
      This series was brought to my attention because of the narrator. I will read a couple more to see if the books mature, and to see if the prose hooks me as much as Therese Plummer. My reaction was, “really, murder?” And each one gorier than the last. For the most part, Harris covered all the basics, but she doesn’t seem to know 6-yr olds well: she is reminded to not let little forget his prayers, but never thinks to have him wash up for dinner?It was weird to read a contemporary novel and it not have cell phones. Heck, Ro didn’t even have an answering machine.
    • 2/5
      This is an easy enough read, but lacks the charisma of her Sookie Stackhouse books. There are a lot of characters, and a lot going on, maybe too much. Lacked the aura of suspense a good murder mystery should have.
    • 4/5
      Listening to Real Murders, the first book in Charlaine Harris' Aurora Teagarden mysteries, after listening to number ten, Sleep Like a Baby, was a lot of fun. I suspect that Ms. Harris had reread the first book before writing the tenth because of some things Roe thought here that we could see in the later book. I also got a big chuckle out of the back of this audio edition implying that this was a new series instead of Ms. Harris' first.The Aurora Teagarden and Lily Bard series have no hints of the paranormal in them, but we know they both take place in the same universe as the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire mysteries. (Well, Lily herself has appeared in at least one Sookie book.) Supporting characters from all three series, as well as the Harper Connelly series have appeared in the Midnight, Texas series.If you enjoy Ms. Harris' style and don't mind the lack of the paranormal, or if you're a cozy mystery fan, you should enjoy this. I liked Ms. Plummer's narration.
    • 1/5
      I had always passed on this Harris series, as it never sounded interesting to me, and I was right. I didn't care for the story: A group of "friends" from a small town get together once a month to discuss their passion "Real Murders", each has a specialty from Lizzie Borden to Serial Killers of which one is discussed every month.This particular month, one of the members is found murdered after the meeting, her murder made to copy one from the past..... As the weeks pass there are several more murders, all mimicking a past real murder, and there is an attempted murder.The main character, Aurora Teagarden, is a librarian, but I found her job duties at conflict with what I know to be a real librarian's job duties to be....I never warmed up to the main character nor any of the others...... they all seemed a bit flat. I'm not likely to read anything else in this series.
    • 2/5
      will give second in series a chance to see if it gets any better...
    • 5/5
      I love a good murder mystery...it really was a fun puzzle! #punkrocklibrarian
    • 4/5
      That was a bit of a surprise! Overall I really liked this book. Some of the characters were a little drab but I really liked Roe. I'm looking forward to starting book 2.
    • 2/5
      This book is the first in the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, a series about a small-town Southern librarian who is a member of a group that discusses true crimes: Real Murders. But what happens to the group when members start to be killed off, in the same manner as famous murders that they discuss in their meetings? I appreciate that the killer was not the obvious red herring. Though, I still had my money on someone else. Oh, well. That's why I'm not a detective. Or a writer. On the whole, it was an entertaining book and a quick read, but I wasn't swept away. Charlaine Harris' approach to race was a bit problematic, and I'd be remiss in not mentioning it, mostly because she tended to sweep it under the rug herself. There was only one person of color in the story and most, if not all, of his dialog occurred "off-camera," as though the author found writing a black man a little too complicated and decided to skip that bit. I come to this conclusion because there is a bit where Aurora talks about a local mayoral race and says that it's a good thing that none of the candidates are black this year, since that always complicates matters. Yeahhhh. To give the author the benefit of the doubt, the book was written 26 years ago, and her more recent books, like the Southern Vampire series (TV's True Blood), are far less problematic. She's grown as a writer since Real Murders. While I probably won't read another of Aurora's adventures, I am reminded that I'm far behind in Harris' vampire series, so I'll be looking into that again soon.P.S. There's apparently a Hallmark movie adaptation of this book, so maybe have a look at that too.
    • 3/5
      Light, entertaining.
    • 1/5
      This series is not for me I'm afraid. I'm not really liking the protagonist, and the writing seems rather amateurish compared to Harris's other series.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable cozy mystery.
    • 3/5
      Charlaine Harris is best known for the recent success of her Southern Vampire series starring Sookie Stackhouse, which was turned into the HBO series True Blood. But she has been an active, prolific writer for two decades. In addition to the Sookie Stackhouse books, Harris is the author of three other series--the Lily Bard mysteries, the Harper Connelly mysteries, and the series that started it all, and which is just recently back in print, the Aurora Teagarden mysteries. It's a mark of Charlaine Harris's talent and creative energy that she can write three series which are, on the surface, so alike--all set in the south and each featuring an independent, plucky amateur sleuth--and yet have each be so distinct from the others.Real Murders, the first of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, is a lovely contemporary twist on the traditional cozy mystery. Aurora, known as Roe, is a librarian in the small Georgia town of Lawrenceton. She's also one of the founding members of a club of true crime afficionados which meets once a month to discuss classic murders. As the club is gathering for a meeting in which Roe is to lecture on a British case from the thirties two things happen: a stranger is introduced to the group and a body is discovered. A murdered body, which appears to mimic exactly the case to be discussed that night. Things happen very quickly after that. One murder follows another, and each appears to be staged as closely as possible to mirror a famous real murder from the past. Roe Teagarden doesn't do an inordinate amount of sleuthing, and only solves the mystery by pure blind chance. But still, she's a lively, engaged, intelligent heroine who seems poised to grow as both a person and a detective.
    • 3/5
      A quick, fun, murder mystery. A little predictable, but worth the day it took to read.
    • 3/5
      Title: Real MurdersAuthor: Charlaine HarrisGenre: Cozy, Murder Mystery, Romance# of pages: 175Start date:?End date:3/31Borrowed/bought: borrowedMy rating of the book, F- [worst] to A [best]: CDescription of the book: Aurora Teagarden, a librarian in a small southern town. Roe is part of a group call Real Murders, a discussion club about real murderers. We soon see her fellow clubgoers die in similar manners to murders discussed by the group.Review: Well, I was excited that this was going to be a series about a librarian solving murders but it turned out that the storyline had almost nothing to do with being a librarian. In fact, they could have left that part out and it wouldn't really have made a difference in the story, in my opinion. That part kind of disappointed me. I too found the main character a bit bland. I will read a few more of the series before I give it a final judgment though.
    • 4/5
      Librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden is a member of the Real Murders Club, which meets once a month to discuss famous cases in smalltown, Lawrenceton, Georgia. On the night she is to present a case she discovers a real one - a fellow member killed in the same style as the one she was to discuss. More "copycat" killings follow and if Roe doesn't find out who did it she may be the next victim. A nice read.
    • 4/5
      I think this may be more of a 3.5 for me. It's my first cozy type mystery and I'm not sure it's the genre for me. I've read all the Sookie Stackhouse books and wanted to give Ms. Harris's other works a try. I did like most of the characters, but there were a lot. Not sure I'll remember everyone when I read the second book. There were a couple love interests for Aurora, but I'm not sure they were believable for me. In general the characters didn't come as alive for me as in the Stackhouse books. It was a nice quick paced book though and I didn't pick out the 'who done it'. I will continue on with the series for a few more books because I'd like to see the characters come a little more alive and that may happen as I get to know them better.
    • 1/5
      Life is quiet for small-town librarian Aurora Teagarden and the biggest event on her weekly social calendar is the meeting of the Real Murders Club. This small group meets regularly to explore historical murders and discuss them with others who share their interest. But when Aurora finds one of the members murdered in the exact same way as the historical murder she was to discuss, life stops being quiet. As bodies pile up it quickly becomes clear that someone in the Real Murders Club has decided to get hands-on experience.I picked this one up because I'd enjoyed one of the made-for-TV movies based on the book series. Plus, I'm always a sucker for any book with a librarian as a main character. However, this book was decidedly underwhelming. While the mystery itself is decent, the writing was Bad. The first murder victim is described as "so dead" twice in as many pages. I was kind of surprised by this as I've read several of Harris's other novels and don't remember the writing quality being this sub-par. Aurora's internal comments about other characters come off as catty and scenes where there should be a spark of attraction come off flat and clinical. I also had professional quibbles about some of the tasks Aurora does in her job that definitely wouldn't fall into a librarian's tasks (even a small-town librarian), particularly as the book states they use volunteers and I don't think they can entirely be written off by the fact that the book was originally published in 1990. Given my prior experiences with Harris, I'm willing to give another book in this series a try but I was underwhelmed by this first outing.
    • 3/5
      Meh. It was a good first of a series and I liked the characters and writing - better than many, but as my collection gets bigger I'm narrowing down authors of cozy mysteries that I really appreciate and feel are excellent writers. Charlaine Harris is moderate, not excellent.
    • 3/5
      The members of Lawrenceton, Georgia's, Real Murders Club share an interest in true crime. Librarian Aurora Teagarden is looking forward to making a presentation at the club meeting until she discovers the body of club member Mamie Wright. Roe is horrified when she realizes that Mamie's murder parallels the Wallace murder that was to be the topic of the evening's discussion. It isn't long before more murders with historical parallels are discovered. Could the murderer be a member of Real Murders with more than an academic interest in the subject?The murder plot and its investigation are about average for the cozy genre. The characters, setting, and true crime hook will be enough to distract most readers from any deficiencies in the plot. I love books with librarians as characters so I plan to continue with this series.
    • 2/5
      Not CH's best albeit a easy fast read. Badly written, or as other reviewers have said, badly edited?! Didnt connect with Roe and the characters.
      An interesting premise but shoddily done.
    • 3/5
      Good mystery novels with a sensible Southern heroine.
    • 3/5
      hmm i didn't figure out the murderer but Aurora bored me. i'll try the second and see if she is more interesting.
    • 4/5
      sweet mystery, good narration
    • 3/5
      Enjoyed it until the end when it became a bit nasty.
    • 2/5
      I was so excited to read this book because I have liked Harris' other books and I loved the idea of the protagonist being a librarian, but there were several things about this book that disappointed me. The premise was interesting, murderers that were copycatting older famous murders. The major disappointment was Aurora Teagarden or "Roe" the protagonist. She is so prim and proper. To her it's a huge deal to be dating two guys at once, she wears bows in her hair and seems to subscribe to all other manner of stereotypical librarian behavior. She is also not really very sleuth like. She didn't solve the mystery, she just seemed to fall into the answers by accident.

      I will probably give the second novel a try just because I know I wasn't thrilled with Sookie Stackhouse in the first Southern Vampire novel either. It might be interesting to see who Roe ends up with, the cop or the mystery writer/professor.

    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this first installment in the Aurora Teagarden series. Although I've read other mysteries where the protagonist is a librarian, I appreciated the twist that Aurora "Roe" was a member of a local club (called Real Murders) that met monthly to discuss famous true crimes in history. As it happens, the murders in this story were patterned after "true crimes," which had an inpact on the club, to say the least! Although the local "Real Murders" Club disbanded during the murder investigations, I wonder if it reappears in future books in this series.

      I was surprised by who the killers were, and enjoyed the ending. It was a good read on a holiday weekend!
    • 4/5
      Reading REAL MURDERS hard on the heels of finishing DEADLOCKED, I am overwhelmed by how much Sookie and Aurora have in common. Aurora is definitely a bit more of a firecracker (quicker to take offense or speak her mind), but she shares the sweet practicality that makes Sookie so much fun to read. I had forgotten who the perpetrator was, absolutely chilling. As I recall, Harris did a good job carrying the fall out of these events into book two, as well as keeping Aurora's love life lively... of course, re-reading is the best way to know for sure. Onward to book two!
    • 3/5
      Cozy mysteries are kind of their own special thing - small towns, small concerns, lots of focus on interpersonal relationships, an improbable body count. Real Murders fits the mode neatly, and the main character is sympathetic without quite crossing the line to pathetic - although there are moments where it's close.

      The conceit - that someone in a group of true crime buffs is committing murders based on historic cases - is moderately neat and provides a logical basis for the main character's involvement. I'm not a huge fan of the "sleuth ends up in personal danger" trope of the genre, but it's probably unavoidable. Otherwise a satisfying little story - Charlaine Harris is a perfectly competent writer and knows exactly what she's doing here.