A Bone to Pick by Charlaine Harris

 

A Bone to Pick by Charlaine Harris, 262 pages

When Jane Engle dies, she bequeaths to Aurora Teagarden her entire estate... including a human skull hidden in the house. Roe finds herself desperately trying to figure out to whom the skull might belong to and why her elderly friend might have kept it. If Roe doesn't solve the mystery soon, heads may roll. 

Real Murders by Charlaine Harris

 Real Murders by Charlaine Harris, 290 pages

Aurora Teagarden is shocked to discover a member of the Real Murders that has been really murdered. When bodies continue to drop in the small southern community--murders based on historic, well-known murders--nearly every member of the Real Murders killed or implicated in a killing. Roe finds herself racing to discover who's behind the murder madness before it's too late. 

I loved Charlaine Harris' Lily Bard series and enjoyed the Southern Vampire novels, so I thought I'd give the Teagarden mysteries a go. The debut novel was pretty solid, but it didn't grab me as instantly as some of Harris' other offerings. 

Shakespeare's Trollop by Charlaine Harris

 Shakespeare's Trollop by Charlaine Harris, 227 pages

In Shakepeare's Trollop, it appears that Deedra Dean's past has caught up with her, and it's threatening Lily Bard's future. While Lily investigates the murder of her client, she finds little things aren't adding up, the little things a cleaner sees that the world doesn't. Soon, it's a race against time to figure out exactly what got Deedra Dean killed. 

Shakespeare's Counselor by Charlaine Harris

 Shakespeare's Counselor by Charlaine Harris, 330 pages

Tragedy strikes Shakespeare, Arkansas once again: a woman is being stalked and people around her are dying. Lily Bard, now a PI-in-training, navigates the case while going through a personal crisis of her own. Once the case is cracked, Lily finds herself shining the light of revelation through her past and into her future. 

This book marked a sort of turn in the series. We see Lily's immense progress towards processing her trauma, and the (relative) normalization of her relationship with Jack.  The mystery storyline was entertaining, but a little more transparent than the others so far in the series. 

Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris

 

Shakespeare's Christmas by Charlaine Harris, 214 pages

Lily Bard is going home for Christmas. 

Back among her family for the first time since her brutal attack years before, Lily Bard is more displaced than ever. Her sister is getting married in a matter of days but Lily finds herself distracted as Jack unexpectedly turns up, hot on the trail of a missing child kidnapped years ago. As the wedding and Christmas draws near, the bodies keep dropping, and Lily rushes to solve the case, hoping desperately she won't ruin her sister's wedding--and life--in the process. 

Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris

 

Shakespeare's Champion by Charlaine Harris, 214 pages

When a bodybuilder is murdered in Lily Bard's home gym, the town of Shakespeare is shook up. Despite her reluctance to participate in the tension building within the town, Lily Bard soon finds herself entangled in the intrigue. As she gets closer to the ugly truth, she faces everything from home-made bombs to a handsome stranger who keeps mysteriously popping into her investigation. 

An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris

An Easy Death: Gunnie Rose; Book One by Charlaine Harris --- 306 pages

The idea began with a short story, The Gunnie, which Harris contributed to an anthology. What might have happened if Franklin Roosevelt had been assassinated before he could take office? That's the underlying premise behind the new alternative history trilogy from best selling suspense/fantasy author Charlaine Harris, who describes a broken America, battered by the Great Depression, and people cut adrift from all their old certainties, struggling to survive. The U.S. now consists of:

New Britannia: The original colonies (sans Georgia) have been re-annexed by Britain;.
Dixie: The old South (including Georgia) has reverted to its segregationist past;
The Holy Russian Empire: California and Oregon has been colonized by the Russian Imperial family and their devoted followers, who survived and escaped from the Revolution, with the help of "gregories" or wizards recruited by Rasputin;
New America: A Canadian-controlled portion of the northwestern U.S.
Texoma: A secessioned portion of the southwestern U.S. with few towns and less law on the raw edge of Mexico;
Indian Territory: a swathe of the central/western states reclaimed by the surviving native tribes;

The first novel of the trilogy is An Easy Death,  featuring Lizbeth Rose, an insouciant young  gunnie who is hired by a pair of Russian gregories to help them track down a descendant of Rasputin. It seems there is something in the blood of Rasputin and his direct descendants that can counteract Tsar Alexei's hemophilia.

With all the grit, suspense and action Harris's fans expect, the trilogy has already been optioned for a television series.

Click HERE to read the starred* review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review and preview from Entertainment Weekly.

Click HERE to read an early pre-publication review from Tor.com.

Click HERE to watch an interview with Charlaine Harris from KATU-TV2 in Portland, Oregon.

Sleep Like A Baby by Charlaine Harris

Sleep Like A Baby: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery by Charlaine Harris --- 262 pages

The tenth book in Harris' popular cozy mystery series featuring Lawrenceton GA librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden.  Roe is currently on leave from the library as she and her (second) husband, mystery writer Robin Crusoe, welcome their new daughter Sophie.  Parenthood is a new and overwhelming experience for Roe and Robin, neither of whom expected it to ever happen to them.

When Sophie is two months old, Robin has to leave town to attend Bouchercon, the world mystery writers convention, in Nashville TN, where he is one of the authors nominated to win the prestigious Anthony Award for Best Mystery Novel of the year. Unfortunately just at the same time, Roe feels the first symptoms of a cold. Robin says he will cancel his trip, but Roe decides to hire Virginia Mitchell, to come in each night to look after Sophie while Robin is gone. Virginia came to help for a few weeks right after Sophie's birth and Roe knows she is reliable. Roe's much younger half brother Phillip, who lives with them, will also be there to help out before and after school each day.

All goes well at first, which is a good thing, because Roe's cold rapidly reveals itself to be a very bad case of the flu. But on the third night Roe is awakened from a heavy sleep by Sophie's persistent cries. Once she settles the baby, Roe goes looking for Virginia, only to discover the body of a dead woman sprawled in the back yard. Virginia's car is parked out front, but Virginia herself has vanished.

Things become even more complicated when the dead woman turns out to be Tracy Beal, an obsessed fan who had stalked Robin and attacked Roe.  Tracy was supposed to be confined in a mental hospital but managed to escape. Then one of Roe and Robin's neighbors tells the police that he thinks he saw Robin in the back yard that night --- even though Robin can prove that he was in Nashville at the time. Roe decides that she must find out how and why Tracy died and what has happened to Virginia, and whether the two incidents are connected.

This latest book in the longtime series (the first book, Real Murders, was published in 1990) shows just how much Harris has grown as a writer over the intervening 27 years.  Roe and the other characters are more fully realized and believable, and the plots are more complex. Harris has ditched the "Real Murders Club," an awkward plot device in the first few books of the series. And I'm glad to see that in Sleep Like A Baby Roe finally "retires" from the library. Not before time; she was never a very believable librarian, and the Lawrenceton Library was never more than a tired collection of outmoded library stereotypes. 

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries are also a popular series of made for TV films that debuted in 2015 on the Hallmark Cable Channel, starring Candace Cameron Bure as Roe.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Reviews.

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris - 308 pages
Midnight, Texas #3

There's something wrong in Midnight.  People are being drawn to town to commit suicide at the crossroads.  Though the residents try to stop it, they can't.  A demon is waking beneath Midnight calling to the residents and others in his attempt to enter and conquer earth.

This is the third and final book in the Midnight, Texas series.  I've really enjoyed this series and wish there were books.  I enjoyed the characters and their interactions.

Day Shift by Charlaine Harris

Day Shift by Charlaine Harris - 307 pages
Midnight, Texas - #2

Manfred has a problem -- one of his clients died during a consult and now the family is accusing him of stealing the client's jewels.  This would be problem enough, but the publicity isn't good for the town of Midnight.  Especially now when the Reverend is taking care of a young boy with unusual abilities.

This is the second book in the Midnight, Texas series by Charlaine Harris.  I found I liked this book more than the first one -- probably because it gave more background info on the various characters.  I'm looking forward to reading the final book in the series.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris - 292 pages

Sookie Stackhouse -- a waitress in small town Bon Temps, Louisiana -- has a small disability.  She can read minds.  This has caused her problems her entire life as she must guard against the minds of everyone around her.  Until she meets Bill, a vampire.  Turns out she can't hear the minds of vampires.  Things would be perfect except for the vampire-related murders in town . . . .

This is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.  I picked it up while waiting for another book to come in. I thought it was a fun, quick read.  It was the easiest book to get into of the Charlaine Harris series that I've tried so far.  I'll definitely try the next book in the series.

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris - 305 pages
Midnight, Texas series #1

Midnight, Texas is a tiny town with just a few residents.  It's a great place for those with a past or those who don't like questions.  New resident Manfred has just moved to town when a body is found.  It's the missing girlfriend of pawnshop owner Bobo.  Turns out she had been lying about her past.  Now her past, Bobo's past, and the pasts of the other residents will come together to create problems for all of the town.

I picked up this book as I started watching the television show and enjoyed it.  I thought I would give the books a try.  There are a lot of similarities between the book and the show, but also a lot of differences.  I am kind of wondering if they combined the plots of all three of the books into the one season of the show.  I guess I'll find out as I read the rest of the series.

Indigo by Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden et al

Indigo: A Mosaic Novel by Charlaine Harris, Christopher Golden, Kelley Armstrong, Jonathan Maberry, Kat Richardson, Seanan McGuire, Tim Lebbon, Cherie Priest, James A. Moore and Mark Morris --- 340 pages

A "mosaic novel," for those unfamiliar with the term, is a novel written collaboratively by a group of authors. Sometimes the story line is presented through multiple characters' points-of-view; sometimes each author takes the established plot or characters in new and contradictory directions. Often each author contributes his or her own chapters.

Done well, the reader comes to the end of the tale with the breathless feeling of having survived an amazing adventure. Done not so well, and the story collapses under the weight of too many improbabilities.

Although each of these authors individually are talented writers of urban fantasy/supernatural thrillers, collectively this tale is, like its heroine, reporter Nora Hesper/alias dark superhero Indigo, a manic depressive mess, invoking every tired cliche in the urban fantasy repertoire.  Let's just say Indigo is one leap more than my suspension of disbelief could reach.

Click HERE to read an article about the genesis of the novel from The Verge.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from the Criminal Intent blog.

All the Little Liars by Charlaine Harris

All the Little Liars: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery by Charlaine Harris --- 229 pages

After a considerable hiatus, Harris returns with a ninth book featuring her intrepid small town librarian sleuth.

Aurora is about to embark on a whole new life with her second marriage to mystery and true crime writer Robin Crusoe, and a baby on the way at long last. But all that marital and maternal bliss gets put abruptly on hold when Aurora's fifteen-year-old half brother Phillip (who came to live with her to escape the fallout of his parents' catastrophically failing marriage) suddenly goes missing along with two of his friends, Josh and Joss, and an eleven-year-old girl named Lisa they were giving a ride home after soccer practice.  It's bad enough that the four kids seem to have vanished into thin air, but the ante gets upped considerably when another friend of theirs is found dead in an alley. Then Clayton Harrison, the spoiled son of a wealthy local family abruptly disappears, and his girl friend commits suicide.

Phillips as the new kid in town, and known to have a troubled past, is immediately suspect, but Aurora knows her half brother is a decent boy and fights to defend him in absentia.  She's convinced that all of this has something to do with the three girls who have been bullying Lisa. One of the bullies is Clayton Harrison's younger sister.

As time passes, Aurora becomes convinced the police are looking in the wrong places. She's been thinking furiously, and suspects the kids are being kept under wraps right there in town, in the last place anyone would suspect.  And she's determined to find out, because Aurora is convinced that the long this mystery goes on, the less likely there will be any happy ending.  Christmas is coming, and she wants her brother back.

Charlaine Harris writes mysteries that start out like a cozy, but end up something a little more Southern Gothic in tone. This one however seems a little stale.

Click HERE to see the review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read the review from the Criminal Element Blog.

Night Shift by Charlaine Harris

Night Shift: A Novel of Midnight, Texas by Charlaine Harris --- 308 pages

This is the third (and allegedly final) book in the Midnight Crossing trilogy. Charlaine Harris's latest small town southern noir fantasy series, Rumor has it that NBC has optioned the books for a television series (shades of True Blood). In Night Shift she finally reveals the secret power that has drawn so much wierdness to this tiny Texas town, basically a crossroads in the middle of nowhere --- a secret that may just end of killing everyone unless Lemuel the vampire can decipher an old book written in ancient Etruscan that he hopes will provide the solution. As the Midnighters pull together to face the danger, a voice whispers from under the crossroads, talking to Midnight's resident witch, Fiji. Turns out Midnight is built over a magical spell that has imprisoned a demon for 250 years. Now the spell is waning and the demon is gathering life force energy to power his rising. And no energy is more potent that the energy of a witch on her own ground.

Click HERE to read a review from the Houston Press.

Click HERE to read an article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Tor. com.

Day Shift by Charlaine Harris

Day Shift: A Novel of Midnight, Texas by Charlaine Harris --- 307 pages

Charlaine Harris is the best selling author of paranormal mysteries with Southern settings. She's probably best known for her Sookie Stackhouse stories, which were the basis for the popular television series True Blood.

This is the second book in a new series (Harris says it will be a trilogy, but if it turns out to be as popular as Sookie, who knows?) set in the small town of Midnight, Texas. How small? Midnight is so small you would miss it if you blinked. The people who live in Midnight like it that way; they shun attention and don't encourage passers-through to linger

Manfred Bernardo chose to settle in Midnight for just that reason. He's a psychic who does most of his business online or by phone, and prefers to keep a very low public profile otherwise. Manfred and the readers were introduced to the rest of Midnight's eccentric inhabitants in the first book in the series, Midnight Crossroad.

Manfred makes a trip to Dallas to meet with a select group of clients willing to pay handsomely for personal psychic readings. He stays in the exclusive Vespers Hotel in the affluent suburb of Bonnet Park. He's surprised to see his Midnight neighbor, Olivia Charity, having dinner with a couple in the hotel restaurant. When the same couple turn up dead in their hotel room the next morning, an apparent murder-suicide, Manfred wonders uneasily if Olivia had anything to do with it.

But Manfred soon has troubles of his own. That same morning, Manfred meets with one of his favorite clients, a wealthy widow named Rachel Goldthorpe, who wants Manfred to help her communicate with her dead husband, Morton. She's having increasing difficulties coping with their volatile and controlling son, and wants Morton's advice. But in the middle of their seance, Rachel collapses and dies.

The local police find a third sudden death at the same hotel on the same morning more of a coincidence than they are willing to accept. When it turns out that Rachel's very valuable jewelry is missing, her son accuses Mandred of theft and murder. . . and the fun begins.

Harris is an experienced writer, and she knows what small, fallen-by-the-wayside towns in the rural South are like. So even her wildest flights of fancy are solidly rooted in the mundane. It's that contrast that makes her characters and stories so entertaining and compels our interest. There are several other subplots in the book, and we learn a little more about the other inhabitants in the process.

It will be interesting to see what happens next in Midnight, Texas.

Day Shift by Charlaine Harris

Day Shift by Charlaine Harris - 320 pages
Midnight, Texas series Book 2 - Published May 5, 2015

I was fortunate to get an eReader advanced review copy from NetGalley to read this book pre-publication.

Harris continues fleshing out the world of the tiny town of Midnight, Texas and its eccentric residents.  Psychic Manfred Bernardo likes to keep a low profile and does most of his professional work online or over the phone.  A rare in-person working weekend in Dallas leads to murder and stealing accusations that threaten both Manfred and the sanctity of Midnight.  The town is further shaken up by the re-opening of a long derelict hotel by proprietors of unknown purpose.  Harris excels at populating her books with characters with troubled pasts and secret identities that are revealed slowly over time.  I was pleased to see this new series make connections to the characters from the Sookie Stackhouse universe so that world will live on too.

Midnight Crossroad by Charlaine Harris

Midnight Crossroad: A Novel of Midnight, Texas by Charlaine Harris --- 305 pages

Now that Charlaine Harris has wound up her Sookie Stackhouse series it looks like she's ready to move on to new series of Southern Noir adventures.

I will admit I was not a big fan of Sookie, although I liked the books much, much more than the television series. But I have always preferred both her Harper Connelly and her Lily Bard series, so I was pleased to see minor but intriguing characters from those books turn up in the kick-off novel of this projected new series about the residents of a tiny little middle-of-nowhere Texas town who prefer to keep their idiosyncrasies to themselves.

Midnight seems like just the place for folks who want to keep a very low profile. But when Bobo Winthrop's girl friend Aubrey walks out of his life without a word of explanation or farewell, breaking his heart, it starts a chain of events that brings the law down on Midnight asking questions that nobody wants to answer.

The story starts slow, as we meet the residents of Midnight, but the pace quickens when Harris begins to peel back the layers of camouflage that protect their secrets. Harris has a way of combining the ordinary and the weird in unexpected ways, and leaving you wanting to know more.  I'm looking forward to another visit to Midnight.

Click HERE to see a trailer for Midnight Crossing.

Strange Brew edited by P.N. Elrod

Strange Brew edited by P.N. Elrod, 371 pages

Since these are all short stories, to say anything would give too much away. So I'm just giving my impression of each:

Seeing Eye by Patricia Briggs -- excellent story and unusual twist. Loved the most with a witch and werewolf as the main characters.

Last Call by Jim Butcher --  completely lost.

Death Warmed Over  by Rachel Caine-- a whole new look at "raising the dead."

Vegas Odds by Karen Chance - my second favorite story in the book. Well written with a shock a the beginning, middle and the end.

Hectate's Golden Eye by P.N. Elrod - There is more than meets the "eye" in this story. It's up to a vampire to figure it out.

Bacon by Charlaine Harris - the title had  me curious until the end. Then it made perfect (and hilarious) sense.

Signatures of the Dead by Faith Hunter - lulled me to sleep.

Ginger by Caitlin Kittredge -- if you haven't read her stories, this is apparently a novella of one and you'd be completely lost like I was.

Dark Sins by  Jenna Maclaine -- A vampire witch but then something more.

Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

Dead Ever After: The Final Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris --- 338 pages

Fans of the best selling Sookie Stackhouse books (and the hit HBO series, True Blood, based on the books), will be saddened to know that Sookie's paranormal adventures with vampires, shapeshifters, faeiries, demons, witches, and an assortment of psychically gifted (or afflicted, depending on your point of view) humans have come to an end.

An escalating series of events have left Sookie feeling rather battered emotionally, but just as Sookie thinks her life can't get any more complicated she finds herself arrested for murder. Her friends rally to her support and soon discover evidence that indicates Sookie has been framed by someone --- or several someones --- who carry serious grudges against her.

Harris has done a fine job of winding up loose threads as Sookie learns to let go of the past and look to the  future with a little more patience and a lot more understanding of herself and other people (of whatever kind).