A Bone to Pick (Aurora Teagarden #2) by Charlaine Harris

(Book cover and synopsis from goodreads.com)

Aurora "Roe" Teagarden's fortunes change when a deceased acquaintance names her as heir to a rather substantial estate, including money, jewelry, and a house complete with a skull hidden in a window seat. Roe concludes that the elderly women has purposely left her a murder to solve. So she must identify the victim and figure out which one of her new, ordinary-seeming neighbors is a murderer- without putting herself in deadly danger.

So...2 books into the 3 books I have available of this series and I am still not sure if I like the heroine and that is making this post very hard to write.

Thumbs Up
The mystery!
One of the characters from the last book (a little old lady who I really liked) has died - from natural causes - and has left pretty much everything to Aurora. What I loved was that most of this book was spent wondering if this harmless little old lady had killed someone and kept their head as a memento.

Thumbs Down
I really don't understand a great deal of Aurora's actions in this and she seemed to go on with life a bit too easily and to almost forget about the skull she had found.

I don't know if it is the setting or what but some comments seem quite tasteless and slap me across the face when they suddenly come up.

All in All
This book was a bit of  miss for me. I could read the 'mystery' but I found it a bit dull and pointless at the end.

Onto book 3.

Real Murders (Aurora Teagarden #1) by Charlaine Harris

Real Murders is a crime club. A great opportunity for the people of Lawrenceton to get together, drink wine, eat chocolate and talk at length about grisly killings. It's a strange but harmless pastime. That is, until the murders begin...

One night, librarian Aurora 'Roe' Teagarden finds a dead body. Killed in a manner eerily similar to a famous case they were about to discuss. And as more brutal copycat crimes follow, Roe must find the perpetrator. Quickly. Before she becomes the next suspect...or the next victim. 

A librarian solving mysteries. Talk about a dream come true.

Thumbs Up!

 The idea of this book is brilliant and hit all the marks for me. A book dedicated to real crimes (1), with a librarian (2). And then the bodies start to pile up (3,4 etc).

The flow of this book was great. There were moments of down time when the action was dimmed a bit but I ddidn'tfeel like I had to rush through these bits to get back to the who-dun-it. Then there are the deaths. Although it is obvious from what is mentioned that the murders are pretty gory they aren't gone into with a great deal of detail. I liked that. There were also plenty of supporting characters to shed suspicion on… A whole book club worth.

Thumbs Down!

 I am not sure how I feel about the heroine yet. The novel is told in first person but everything she tells us or thinks seems to be surface stuff with no depth. There was a romantic sub-plot of will she chose the policeman or the author which I could have happily left.

All in All!

This was an enjoyable mystery. I really hope I can get to like Aurora more in the next few books.

Ps. (not to brag or anything) I totally guessed who did it!