REAL MURDERS by Charlaine Harris

I came late to Charlaine Harris' books. I had heard of her over the years, but it wasn't until the phenomenal success of her supernatural series that I started paying attention. Generally, I don't read supernatural series, and I haven't read her Sookie series -- but because of her great success, her publisher began reprinting her earlier mystery books. That's when I discovered her.

Since I am a mystery series fan, I started with book one of one of her two mystery series -- the Lily Bard books. The books are all very slender in size, and I thought they would be lite, cozy reads. That is, until about page 2. SHAKESPEARE'S LANDLORD was a whirlwind of a dark mystery book, with a main character that is broken and shut down. I couldn't put the book down, and the next thing I knew, I had read all five of the Lily Bard books (in order, of course), including the hard-to-find SHAKESPEARE'S CHRISTMAS. All five proved to be moody, moving, and just plain worth reading.

Berkley, her publisher, is now in the process of republishing her first mystery series, the Aurora Teagarden mysteries. And this morning, I finished book one.

You would think I learned from my experience with the Lily Bard books, but my assumption was that the Aurora Teagarden books would be softer and gentler -- real cozies. After all, lead character Aurora Teagarden is a librarian! But just pages into reading the book I discovered that while they are indeed cozy mysteries, they are so with a hard edge to them. More murders and more blood fill these pages than most cozy series -- though they aren't anywhere near as violent as, say, the Kay Scarpetta books. Still, a sweet little library-based cozy series is not where these are.

Start with the premise. A group of people have formed a club called the Real Murder club, based on their mutual fascination with mysteries of the past. Each month, one of the 12 members discusses a famous murder (or murderer), and the group discusses. However, on the night that Aurora was going to present, she finds one of the members murdered violently, in a copy of a famous murder of the past. Soon, other murders happen -- each carbon copies of past murder cases. Who is it? And why is this happening?

Well, suffice to say, this is a page-turner. Charlaine Harris is a gifted writer, and I've loved the books of hers I've read enough that it may actually convince me to try a supernatural series (Sookie, get ready!). If you like your cozies a little harder than normal, give this series a try. Harris is a great storyteller, and you'll fall in love with Aurora Teagarden.