Customer Reviews

Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (Center Point Premier Mystery (Largeprint))

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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?

This author is a real "find". It's great to stumble across an author who really manages to balance humour, plot and character development. I'm looking forward to reading more of these books because Ms. Harris obviously intends for her characters personal relationships to change and develop. Hope she writes more (and soon)

This series is definitely not a keeper but can be a mildly entertaining read. My biggest gripes about this book are the same for all in the series so far.

One: Aurora's interactions with the other characters is my favorite part of these books, and what I enjoy about a good series in general. In this series she seems to find great chemistry with one guy, is seemingly falling in love, and then all of a sudden by the next book she is with the OTHER guy (the one you didn't like all that much and is obviously wrong for her.) In this latest installment the "love at first sight" is simply not believable to me... Martin is not very fleshed out as a character and now all of the sudden he is the ONE? What happened to Robin? Harris never goes into this in detail, which is annoying, and leaves the reader vaguely unsatisfied.

Two: Aurora is just not that great a character! Kind of dumb and never learns from her mistakes. She hasn't the charm of Sookie nor the depth of Harper. She is the dumb blond in the horror movie who decides to investigate the noise in the scary motel room while the audience heckles and throws popcorn at the screen :(

In short get this series from the library.

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.

"Three Bedrooms, One Corpse" by Charlaine Harris is the third book in her series about Aurora Teagarden. (Follows Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 1 and A Bone To Pick: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Book 2) The story begins with Aurora aka Roe showing a house to Martin Bartell and his sister Barby who are interested in moving nearby. Everything is going swimmingly, well if you ignore the attraction between Martin Bartell and herself, until she opens one of the bedroom doors and finds a dead body.

The dead woman was also a realtor, and had been showing the house the day before. But with the key to the house put back in the office, it points to a fellow realtor being the murderer. Roe is determined to get to the bottom of this, and deal with the attraction between Martin and herself in the meantime (while still dating Aubrey).

I fully recommend this book. I did figure out who was the murderer before Roe did, unlike the previous two that I read. Don't forget to check out the rest in this series. Next is The Julius House: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 4, followed by Dead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 5, Fool And His Honey: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 6, Last Scene Alive (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries), and Poppy Done To Death: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 8.

Or if you'd like to try a different series by Charlaine Harris, check out the Lily Bard mysteries.(Shakespeare's Landlord (The First Lily Bard Mystery), "Shakespeare's Champion", Shakespeare's Christmas", "Shakespeare's Trollop", and Shakespeare's Counselor")

Or her new supernatural Southern Vampire Mysteries (Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Bk. 1), "Living Dead in Dallas", "Club Dead", "Dead to the World", "Dead as a Doornail", "Definitely Dead", and "All Together Dead")

When you love or admire someone, it's easier to forgive them. Not that Charlaine Harris, is looking for my forgiveness, but nevertheless, I forgive her. This book isn't bad but it's not one of her best.

Since Roe had inherited some money, she was able to quit her job as librarian and is now testing the waters to see if she wants to go into the real estate business. Luckily, her Lauren Bacall resembling mother is the owner of the most successful real estate business in the town of Lawrenceton (almost a suburb of Atlanta). Upon showing a house to the hunky, distinguished and brand new-to-town, Martin Bartell and his sister, a corpse is found in one of the bedrooms and heavens, it's the body of trampy Tonia Lee, another real estate agent from a rival agency. The mystery here is almost secondary; much more time is spent on the newly developing quite passionate relationship with Martin. This book has its moments of fun but more reminds me of taking a ride with a friend whom you really wanted to spend time with yet doing nothing but sit in the car while she runs her errands.

I started reading the Charlene Harris Sookie Stackhous series and totally enjoyed her style of writing. So I decided to try another one of her series. So far out of the Aurora Teagarden series, Three Bedrooms, One Corpse is my favorite. This series is something a parent could have a 12 to 13 year old read with out worring about the content.
I find her books funny, relaxing and easy to read.

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.

Enjoyed reading these books so far. Interesting story lines and a quick read. If you have read the Sookie Stackhouse books first and enjoyed the steamy romance you may be very disappointed here. Otherwise a good read.

I love that everytime there's a murder in town Aurora is somehow there and Charlaine writes it so it seems natural that she's there. The reaction of the cops is just funny as they see her again and again at the scene.

However, again it's Aurora's personal life that I enjoy most. Her immediate attraction to Martin even while dating the Minister. Their first date is very interesting. I wish Charlaine would have given us a bit more detail in the area of her love life if you know what I mean.