THREE BEDROOMS, ONE CORPSE

Rating:
Summary: Good easy read
Review: A great book for the beach or vacation, perhaps even for a long soak in the tub. The writing requires no extra brain power and the main character, Roe, is an interesting person. It tickled me the way Roe was such a mystery book fanatic. She seems to have books scatered throughout her house, as well as her purse. Whipping out a paperback even if she was only standing in line at the checkout counter. The story was short, the action moved quickly, but the who-done-it was extremely easy to predict.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Amusing Mystery Writers Around!
Review: Aurora Teagarden returns in the 3rd book in the hilarious mystery series. Aurora is a short, respectible, 30-something single female in the small town of Lawrenceton. She used to work at the library until she unexpectedly inherited a fortune from a friend. Now she is footloose and fancy free with no job to tie her down, no boyfriend (due to a recent break up) and no money problems. Too bad that she is bored to death. Aurora decides that she needs something to do, so she starts learning about the real estate business from her mother, the best real estate agent in town. When her mother asks her to go and open up an expensive home so that her wealthy new clients can take a look, Roe is agreeable and cheerfully sets off to show the home to the best of her ability. Within an hour she has decided that the real estate business isn't for her, that the new guy in town, although quite a bit older is really hot and there is definitely some attraction there, and that, no matter how trashy in real life, no one deserves to be murdered and put on display in an empty house for someone to find. When her friend's husband is accused of being the murderer, Roe feels that she has to intervene and find out what really happened. Along the way she has to deal with her completely physical reaction to a gorgeous, wealthy older man, a cantankerous cat, shopping for a new home, and a disgruntled ex-employee of her new boyfriend who has started stalking her. You know, the usual problems...

I thought that Three Bedrooms, One Corpse was quite entertaining and finished it in one sitting. Charlaine Harris is a very talented author and, while there may have been a few small errors (which I didn't notice because I was too caught up in the story), she has a very smooth writing style that allows you to be amused and informed at the same time. The plot moves quickly and there are several subplots that keep the reader involved with the characters. Although I still enjoyed the Lily Bard/Shakespeare series and the Southern Vampire series more, I have grown quite fond of Aurora Teagarden and know that I will pick up anything that Charlaine Harris cares to write. At the cheap price that these books are available for, why not treat yourself?

Rating:
Summary: Real estate leads to real crime
Review: In this 3rd. book of the series, Aurora Teagarden has quit her job as a librarian and decides to try her hand at her mother's real estate business. In the very first house she goes to with a client, she discovers a dead body. The deceased is a rival real estate agent who was reputed to have numerous extra-marital affairs. There are many suspects--jealous husband, rival realtors, spurned lovers, but Roe is the one who uses an obscure clue to track down the murderer. Also in this book, she meets and falls in love with Martin Bartell, a wealthy older man who is the manager of a large company. His attraction to Roe seems unlikely, but their relationship proceeds very rapidly, if unbelievably throughout this book.