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.

Falling in Love by Donna Leon

Falling in Love: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon --- 264 pages

The 24th novel in Donna Leon's best selling mysteries series reunites Brunetti with opera diva Flavia Petrelli, who was featured in Leon's first mystery, Death at La Fenice (1992) and in her fifth, Aqua Alta (1996). In that first outing, Brunetti proved that Flavia, then a young and rising singer, had not poisoned a renowned German conductor at the famous Venetian opera house, Teatro La Fenice.

A few years later, Brunetti was able to clear Flavia's then lover of a charge of murder and help Flavia retain custody of her two young children during her subsequent divorce from her vengeful husband.

Now after many years in which Flavia has established herself as a star in the international world of opera, she has returned to Venice and La Fenice to sing the title role in Puccini's Tosca. Brunetti and his wife Paola have tickets for one of the first performances, and go back afterwards to renew their acquaintance with Flavia.

A few nights later she has dinner with them and Paola's parents, and Brunetti notices Flavia's extreme unease. She admits that she is upset by the relentless attentions of an anonymous admirer who has been following her across Europe, showering her with yellow roses at every performance. Then in Venice masses of flowers also appeared in her dressing room at the theater and even worse, in the hall outside the door of the apartment where she is staying.

When a young singer whom Flavia has encouraged in passing is suddenly attacked and injured on her way home from the theater, Brunetti realizes that Flavia is being stalked by someone dangerously --- perhaps murderously --- obsessed with her.

A fascinating look behind the scenes at the uneasy demands of fame and the strange relationship between celebrities and devoted fans. Plus, all the pleasures of the Venetian setting --- at one memorable point, Paola observes, "We live in Paradise, don't we?" contrasting Brunelli's robust family life with the politics and bureaucracy of his job.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers' Weekly.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE to read a review from the blog Books to the Ceiling.