Tag Archives: murder mysteries

Aurora Teagarden Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

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I love mystery novels and if its a mystery series… so much the better. You get attached to the characters by the time you read the last chapter and the knowledge that your association with them is going to last for a couple of books more, is vastly reassuring. I devoured Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series a long time ago. When I began the Aurora Teagarden series, I had no idea it was penned by Charlaine Harris. When I had finished the first book Real Murders in the series, I was intrigued but mildly nauseated with the ending. I decided I won’t read any more. But the next day, I started the next book in the series. And I was hooked. The protagonist of this series is a tiny, bespectacled single librarian with the charming name of Aurora Teagarden, who has a penchant for reading about famous murders and murderers. And in each book, a murdered body turns up somewhere in her vicinity and she finds the murderer with her trademark blend of snoopiness and spunk.

Apart from the superbly handled mystery aspect of the books, what I like the most about this series, is how the heroine Aurora blossoms as the series progresses. She becomes more self possessed, more outspoken, comes to possess an outstanding array of spectacles and becomes increasingly more lovable. I love the way Harris has handled the part where Aurora grieves for her first husband, Martin Bartell and how she emerges a stronger and more mature woman from her misery. I like how the mysteries sound at the outset, as if the perpetrator is a person unknown but how slowly one small thing fits into the other and the killer is revealed to be very much a resident of Lawrenceton, the fictional town where the book is based. The supporting characters are also well sketched out and Harris gently draws the reader into their world, so that you really feel for the characters and find their everyday doings interesting, as if they are people living in your own street. As I write this post, I am down to my last book in the series, the tenth! Need I say more… go and read this book!

The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

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How did Agatha Christie do it? How could every book she ever wrote be the perfect murder mystery? Death on the Nile, And Then There were None and Murder on the Orient Express are few of my top favourites. Only thing is being a whodunnit you can read her books only once. But there are so many of them that you can be assured to be pleasantly and chillingly occupied for a couple of months. There was a time when all I ever read was Agatha Christie books. Even something as normal as the elevator stopping midway had me thinking mysteries and murders 😊 The ABC Murders features the beloved Hercule Poirot, the little man with the big moustache. The one who solves the most mysterious of crimes only by using his ‘little grey cells’. Like all Hercule Poirot mysteries, this book has an interesting premise. There is a serial killer on the loose and he is meticulously going by the letter. He starts with the letter A, the first victim being a Mrs Ascher staying in Andover and merrily works his way through the alphabet. What’s more, he is so good as to drop a line to Poirot every time mentioning when and where the next murder is to be committed. Talk about confidence! I can’t even be sure of what time I will reach work the next day! Does Poirot manage to catch his devoted correspondent? Of course, he does or there won’t be a book! Read the book to find out how and be bowled over by Christie’s brilliance yet again.