Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 978-0-425-21462-6

Sweet and Deadly is Charlaine Harris’ first book, a stand-alone published in 1981. It features a young woman named Catherine Linton, who is slowly coming to grips with the death of her parents six months before. One morning, when shooting at cans on her land in the country, Catherine discovers the battered body of her father’s former nurse. Catherine is shaken, but believes this murder is related to the suspicious deaths of her parents, whose car had been sabotaged and caused their deaths.

Catherine moved back home after the deaths of her parents but she has been aimless and withdrawn. She realizes after she discovers the body of the nurse that she has been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Her parents died for a reason. Someone they knew killed them and she has been waiting to see what the killer’s next move would be.

Catherine and her fellow newspaper reporter, Tom, both investigate and report the murder of the nurse. But when Catherine discovers yet another body in a seemingly related crime, people she has known all her life in her hometown Lowfield, Mississippi don’t know whether to be afraid of her or for her. Catherine is certain that one of her fellow townspeople is the killer and along the way she discovers a lot of surprising information about the people she has known and trusted all her life.

This is a great example of a murder in a small town. There are no mysterious strangers on whom the murder can be pinned and this lends a fantastic tension to the story because the relationships between people in a small town are complex and run deep. When the dynamics between people are changed, the results can be shattering and Harris captures this well.

Favorite character? Catherine’s boss Randall. Did I guess it? Yes. Will I read another? Yes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Available at Amazon!

ISBN 0-425-20568-1

Grave Sight is the first book in the Harper Connelly and Tolliver Lang series. Harper and Tolliver are step-siblings who make their living off Harper’s unusual ability to locate dead bodies. She acquired this strange talent after being hit by lightning as a teenager and it is definitely a mixed blessing. They make a comfortable living but are generally regarded as freaks and live a very insular life.

In Grave Sight, Harper is asked to locate the body of a teenage girl who has been missing for several months. The body of her boyfriend was found months ago with a gunshot wound in the head and rumors have been flying around the town that he killed the girl and then himself. But Harper is able to see the moments just before the two young people died, and it is clear to her that they were murdered. Convincing the parents and police is another matter, though. The fact that one of the local police officers was related to the young murdered woman complicates matters and Harper and Tolliver quickly find that what seemed a simple job is much more complicated than they originally thought.

Grave Sight is a re-read for me. I really enjoy Harris’ writing style, original ideas, and plots and have been enjoying picking up the books in her various series that I have missed or going back to read them in order. I often complain about authors who mix supernatural elements into “straight” stories but Harris does it masterfully here. Harper and Tolliver just accept Harper’s unusual ability as another facet of their lives and get along with it the best they can.

Favorite character? Harper and Tolliver have an amazing symbiotic relationship that just shines, so I have to go with both off them. Did I guess it? Yes. Will I read another? Yes, all of them.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Available at Amazon!

ISBN 0-8027-5769-3

When I was living in California, I was talking with the wife of one of my co-workers at a party and discovered we had a mutual interest in murder mysteries and murder cases of the past. This was when Kath told me that she had, in fact, gone to college in Santa Cruz when there were two active serial killers there (personally, I would have transferred). But whenever we saw each other after that, Kath and I chatted about murder.

So I couldn’t help but smile when I picked up Harris’ Real Murders, published in 1990, which features a group of like-minded people. The Real Murders Society meets once a month and hears a presentation about a real murder and its investigation. It is on the evening when our heroine, Aurora Teagarden, is scheduled to give her presentation on the Julia Wallace case that she discovers the corpse of another Society member just before the start of the meeting.

As you might imagine, the police officers called to the scene are somewhat suspicious of the Society and their hobby and the members become prime suspects in the murder investigation. Not without reason, of course, some of the members are a little… unusual. And when Aurora realizes that the body has been positioned to mimic a past murder, the police are certain one of their group is guilty. Suddenly Aurora and her fellow club members are all afraid of being featured in the next “themed” murder and Aurora must find the killer to save her own skin.

I really like the way Charlaine Harris writes. Aurora starts off as a meek librarian with a strange hobby but grows over the course of this book as murder changes from an academic pursuit to something very real and not at all nice. While the mystery is not tremendously complicated, it gets good treatment in this book as the Society members keep turning up with incriminating evidence in their possession.

Favorite character? Jane Engle, who is trying to figure out just how she will be murdered. Did I guess it? Yes. Will I read another? Absolutely, Harris has become one of my favorites and I look forward to additional Aurora Teagarden stories.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Available at Amazon!

Charlaine Harris’ 1981 Sweet and Deadly has been rereleased this month.

Sweet and Deadly
By Charlaine Harris
(Stand Alone)

Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Berkley; Reprint edition (March 6, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0425214621

Available at Amazon

Charlaine Harris’ 2006 Definitely Dead has also been rereleased this month.

Definitely Dead
By Charlaine Harris
A Southern Vampire Mystery (Sookie Stackhouse)

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Ace; Reprint edition (March 27, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0441014917

Available at Amazon

ISBN 0-441-00853-4

Dead until dark is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series. Sookie is a young woman in small town Louisiana with an unusual ability – she can read the minds of people around her. But she refers to this power as a disability. She has finally gained some control over her power and can keep the thoughts of others from intruding and thereby maintain some semblance of order in her own mind and life. But pretty much everybody in town thinks she is crazy and some are afraid of her.

But Sookie is getting by working as a waitress and living with her grandmother, mostly content as she is until the night the vampire comes into the bar. In this series, vampires have come out of the closet, so to speak, and now live among the humans as they can sustain themselves on recently invented artificial blood products. This particular vampire has decided to return to his ancestral plantation home and restore it to its former glory. When Sookie rescues him from some inhospitable bar patrons, a new friendship begins.

Charlaine Harris has a wonderful way of writing about people. Her heroines are all damaged or flawed in some way that causes them to work harder at maintaining a “normal” life than anyone else and Harris gives us insights into how this is done without belaboring it and making it unwieldy. And she fills out the cast with other good characters, too, all lifelike and believable instead of canned stereotypes. Sookie’s Nana, for example, is a wonderful study in contrasts. Protective of Sookie, but fascinated by the vampire, she invites him to speak to her historical group. Sookie’s brother is so real at times that you would like to smack him upside the head – anyone with siblings can recognize their conflicts and relate.

This series is a “lighter” vampire series. This book is funny, charming, and does have a mystery to be solved. But it also has interesting vampire elements and these always involve violence.

Favorite character? Nana. Did I guess it? No. Will I read another? Absolutely, I already have.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Buy it from Amazon!

ISBN 0-425-20686-6

Creating a hero that is outside the norm is a risky and gutsy move. And Harris has done it successfully in Shakespeare’s Landlord. Lily Bard is a cleaning lady in the small town of Shakespeare. She keeps to herself and lives an ordered and austere life to counteract the emotional turbulence she still suffers as a result of being brutally raped several years before. But circumstances are conspiring against her. An insomniac, she secretly walks the streets while the rest of her neighbors sleep. As she is returning from a long walk in the middle of the night, she sees someone use her garbage cart to dump a body in the park across from her house.

Shakespeare is a small town and the number of possible suspects in the murder of her neighbor is even smaller. The police investigate everyone and dig up the past that Lily has tried to escape. Suddenly her anonymity, security, and emotional stability are all threatened. It is fascinating to watch the character of Lily develop as she is required to interact with people and to break up her ordered routine. She is amazed to discover that she is ready to re-enter the world she has avoided – but slowly and definitely with care.

If you have read Harris’ other books you may be surprised at the literary muscles she flexes here. She is able to juggle some serious themes without making the book depressing. She crafts great characters in a book that is both a mystery and a personal awakening and keeps the attention of the reader throughout.

Favorite character? Claude Friedrich, next door neighbor and cop. Did I guess it? Actually, this was a re-read for me and I can’t remember if I did or not. Will I read another? Yes, I have done so and will read still more.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Buy it from Amazon!

ISBN 0-425-21203-3

Charlaine Harris has an amazing ability to write about an unusual subject as if it is the most ordinary thing in the world. She does this so well, that there is no suspension of disbelief required on the part of the reader – pretty impressive considering her topics of choice.

How does she do it? Well, the two main characters of Grave Surprise, step-siblings Harper Connelly and Tolliver Lang, have had nine years to adapt to the fact that Harper gained the ability to locate dead bodies after being struck by lightning. To them, this unusual ability isn’t supernatural, it is a fact of everyday life – and it is a way for them to make a living. We accept this situation right along with them and enjoy the reactions of the other characters to their interesting vocation.

Harper and Tolliver try to maintain their own little island of sanity in a vast sea of greiving relatives, skeptical law officers, and truly wacky believers in the weird as they rent Harper’s body-finding talent to people desperately seeking missing loved ones. Grave Surprise starts with Harper being tested by a college professor who is trying to discredit her. To everyone’s surprise, she finds a new body in a very old cemetary and becomes a suspect in the murder investigation.

Harris’ quality of writing is very good and her theme and characters are downright fascinating. Frankly, the mystery in this book is weak, but the other sterling attributes compensate for this shortcoming.

Favorite character? They are all good but I am forced to choose Manfred – gifted, charming, and wacky. Did I guess it? Yes. Will I read another? Absolutely!

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Buy it from Amazon!