The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Volume One, by Charlaine Harris

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The Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel introduced me to Aurora Teagarden earlier this year. You can read my overall review of the movies here.

When I found out the movies are based on a book series, I knew I wanted to read at least the first one. However, as I usually prefer, I started watching the movies first. Most of the time, I find that books are better than their movie counterparts. If I watch the movie first and I enjoy it, but then find that the book is even better, I can fully enjoy both experiences. If I watch the movie after having read such a great book, I might be disappointed with my viewing experience.

So I made sure to watch A Bone to Pick and Real Murders before reading these stories, the two in The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Volume One book. Interestingly, the book series begins with Real Murders, and A Bone to Pick is second. In the movie series, A Bone to Pick is first and Real Murders is second. It doesn't really matter, though, as each book and movie are separate mysteries. There is a secondary storyline that continues in them, but that's minor. 

The following two paragraphs are summaries of the stories in the book.

In Real Murders we are introduced to Aurora Teagarden, a single woman in her late 20's who is a librarian. She is part of a club called Real Murders. They meet to analyze real murders from the past. (Hey, everyone has their hobbies, right??)  In this story, one of their own club members is murdered and Aurora ("Roe") is determined to find out who the killer is. Everyone in the club is a suspect. That's almost a dozen suspects, folks!

In A Bone to Pick, Roe inherits a house after her elderly friend passes away. They were not close friends, though, and everyone, including Roe, wonders why the house was left to her. Roe soon realizes there is something in the house that Jane, her friend who passed away, had been hiding. Roe discovers that "something" is a human skull. Yikes! Did her friend commit a gruesome murder? If not, then who put the skull there and whose skull is it? Where is the rest of the skeleton? Roe wants to find out. This story has a very strong final chapter or so. A lot happened and it was very engaging. Unfortunately, it took a while to get to that point. Not much happened until then.

While technically these stories qualify as cozy mysteries, they were missing much of the coziness for me. I found this to be true for both stories in Volume 1. I also noticed that neither story in the book focuses much on the mysteries. Instead, they focus a lot on Aurora's day to day life.

There were so many characters in the Real Murders story that I found it overwhelming. I took notes on the characters and referred to them often throughout the story. On the contrary, the opposite seemed true for the story, A Bone to Pick.  It lacked teamwork and togetherness. 

I will say that the stories I read are not bad. I actually love the character of Aurora Teagarden, perhaps even more so than the movie version. She has a quirky personality in the book, which I found appealing. I just wish the books had more coziness and sleuthing in them. I most likely will not read the rest of this series.

If you've read Real Murders and/or A Bone to Pick, I'd be interested in reading your thoughts in the comments below.