Customer Reviews

The Julius House (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Julius House is the fourth book in the Aurora Teagarden series. Aurora "Roe" has finally recovered from her injuries incurred at the end of the last book and is happily engaged to Martin Bartell, her handsome, older, richer boyfriend. For her wedding gift, Martin buys her the Julius house, the perfect house for her. Many people think she is crazy for living there due to the sudden disappearance of the Julius family who used to live there. Roe doesn't worry about it in the slightest and concentrates on glorying in her happily engaged status. She loves being the bride instead of the bridesmaid and pushes any doubts about her soon-to-be-husband aside. When they return from their perfect honeymoon in England, Roe settles in to redecorate and get settled. She is surprised when Martin informs her that two of his friends are down on their luck and that they will be moving into the apartment over the garage. Still, Roe is in love and excited to meet some of Martin's friends and does her best to welcome them. She soon discovers, however, that they are really there to guard her. When pressured, Martin confesses that he is a gunrunner in South America and that he is always worried about retaliation. To take her mind off of this confession, Roe decides that she is going to find out what happened to the Julius family and drags her bodyguard along for the ride. She soon discovers that sometimes it is better to let secrets remain buried...

I admit that the whole Roe/Martin wedding was a little contrived, but Roe really has wanted to get married all of her life and is extremely flattered that such an attractive, wealthy gentleman would be in love with her. It was fun to see Roe's thought processes as she dealt with extreme changes and challenges in her new life. I quite enjoyed the whole Julius family subplot and, though the ending was a little bit too shocking, Roe's whole investigation was quite logical and shows how one determined person can often put clues together that other people missed. As with the her other books, Charlaine Harris offers the reader a host of interesting supporting characters, many amusing details about the mystery and a fun, fast read for those who enjoy this type of genre. I feel that Harris' other mystery series starring Lily Bard (Shakespeare set) is stronger and her Dead Until Dark series is cleverer, but anything that Harris writes is worth reading!

"The Julius House" by Charlaine Harris is the fourth book in her series about Aurora Teagarden. (Follows Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 1, A Bone To Pick: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Book 2 and Three Bedrooms, One Corpse: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery) Roe is now happily engaged to Martin Bartell, but nothing is as it seems. Martin has just gifted Roe with the old Julius house as a wedding present, and she is happily planning on moving them in. Depite its history (the Julius family mysteriously vanished years ago), she finds it enchanting. She even finds no problem with letting a couple of Martin's friends live on the property. That is, until she finds out that they're her bodyguards. Besides dealing with her husband, Roe decides she wants to figure out what happened to the Julius family.

I enjoyed this book as much as I did the earlier ones. It did take me a bit to warm to Martin, but I've decided that he's just what Roe needs. And unlike "Three Bedrooms, One Corpse", I did not solve the mystery before Roe! Everytime I thought I had figured it out, something new would be revealed, and I'd have to rethink my whole theory.

I fully recommend this series! Next is Dead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 5, followed by 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")

I am reading the Aurora Teagarden series for the first time. I'm so glad that Charlaine Harris' publishers are reprinting her older books. This series does have something in common with her vampire series, although there is nothing so dangerous as a vampire in it.

I've read enough of her books now to know that she starts each series with a heroine who is damaged in some way, and that as the series continues the heroine becomes much stronger, because of the damage and not in spite of it.

Aurora doesn't look damaged on the surface, but she is a very tiny, odd looking woman that no one takes seriously, and she doesn't seem to be able to attract a decent man into her life. By this book in the series that has changed. She has met the love of her life and is engaged to marry him. In a previous book she inherited enough money to have made her life comfortable. She is no longer living on the edge financially. In all of Charlaine Harris' books, each book is an individual story, but there is also always the continuing story arc about what is going on in the lives of the characters. I like that combination a lot.

Each book in this series is a mystery, and in this one Aurora falls in love with a house that has a mystery built in. The previous owners, the Julius family, disappeared one day many years previously and in this book Aurora and her companions solve that mystery.

Although this book is out of print, it is well worth the time to find it. It was even better than "Three Bedrooms, One Corpse." I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story.

Julius House (1995) is the fourth mystery novel in the Aurora Teagarden series, following Three Bedrooms, One Corpse. In the previous volume, the killer cornered Roe, but she attacked him with an umbrella ferule. He pinned her on the floor and beat on her. She used her souvenir rock to smash him alongside the head.

In this novel, Aurora Teagarden was born and raised in the small town of Lawrenceton, Georgia, in the suburbs of Atlanta. She is now married to Martin Bartell. She has had some strange experiences in her life.

Martin Bartell is manager of the local Pan-Am Agra plant. Martin was born and raised in Corinth, Ohio, and served in combat as a Marine at the end of the Vietnam War.

Shelby Youngblood is an old friend of Martin from the war in Vietnam. He is married to Angel.

Angel Youngblood is a martial artist and stuntwoman. She is almost as tall as her husband and towers over Roe.

In this story, Roe and Martin are engaged. Martin buys the Julius House for Roe and she buys his family farm for him. She flies to Corinth, Ohio, by herself to acquire the property. She briefly meets Martin's ex-wife in Corinth.

Roe and Martin exchange deeds a few weeks before the wedding. Martin lets Roe handle the renovation of the Julius House. She starts buying household goods and hiring people to work on the house.

Shelby is coming to work at the Pan-Am Agra plant and will need a place to stay. Martin asks Roe if Shelby and Angel may use the apartment above the garage and she agrees. Then they take over the job of coordinating the renovation of the Julius House.

Of course, Roe is also attending showers and other bridal celebrations. She meets people that she hasn't seen for a long time. And they all have questions about the Julius House.

Roe is asked how she could possibly live in a house from which three people have vanished to never be seen again. Haturally she knows about the missing family, but she is not really concerned. The house seems too peaceful to have ghosts.

After the wedding and honeymoon, however, Roe starts investigating the disappearance. She and Angel measure dimensions inside and outside the house looking for hidden spaces, but find nothing except a china doll. Then Roe starts questioning the witnesses.

This tale has Roe digging up some strange information. Angel helps her in these investigations. She even saves Roe from a man with an axe.

Roe discovers that Martin has not told her everything before the marriage. She even quarrels with him. She still loves him, but she wonders if she is making a mistake.

This novel is more like a typical detective story than the others. In the next installment -- Dead Over Heels -- a body literally drops out of thin air. Read and enjoy!

Highly recommended for Harris fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of old murders, unexpected findings, and persistent women. For anyone unfamiliar with this series, the initial volume is Real Murders.

-Bill Jordin

The story starts out happy and with the expected mystery. But, the author throws in a bit of a second mystery that makes the story much more interesting. This second mystery shows us that not every one is completely good or completely bad, that there are several states of in between. As the story unfolds we learn how Roe learns this for herself and how she copes with where her heart leads her.

I look forward to reading the next book in the series and hope that the author will continue with the second mystery in the next novel.

So this is a pretty good book, with a couple twists that, honestly, I did not see coming. And at less than 300 pages, you can get through it pretty quickly. Basically, Roe's dreamboat of a soon-to-be husband buys her a house once owned by a family who suddenly disappeared. Naturally, Roe just HAS to find out why they vanished. Getting herself nearly killed in the process. Add to that her fiancé's somewhat shady friends staying with her for awhile, seemingly out of the blue and you get yourself one good little book.
My criticism? I find it to be a trend in a lot of her books (and I've read many, from Sookie, to Lily Bard, to this, to Harper Connelley) that whenever some minor character appears, she has to let us know their race or nationality. In this book she let's us know the security guard in an apartment building is "black". And goes on to write his dialogue in slang and poor grammar. As if that is how all African Americans speak. I'm white and I am SURE there are tons of grammatical errors in this review that I am not aware of. It just seems to me that the race a of a security guard is immaterial. I guess we have to assume that all the other characters are white because she didn't specify. In an early Sookie Stackhouse novel, she actually named an Italian character "Guido" or something like that. And don't get me started on the couple of scenes where Roe and her fiance get intimate. Not that they are explicit by any means, not at all. They are just kind of hokey. Ms. Harris actually wrote the words "Readers, he carried me" (into the bedroom I guess) in one scene where they reunite after being apart.
So of course I recommend this book. Not everyone is going to react to the somewhat negative things I pointed out the way I did.

Aurora Teagarden's fiance, Martin Bartell, gives her the deed to the Julius House as a wedding gift. The house has a dark history. Some six years before an entire family named Julius had disappeared from the residence leaving all of their belongings. Despite a careful investigation into their disppearance by the authorities no trace was ever found. Aurora decides that she is going to find the Julius family.

On the personal side, though, she is also finding out some things about her future husband that make her more than a bit uneasy. Then Martin tells her that he a friend from Vietnam who has lost his job in Florida and will be staying in their garage apartment. When she meets the Youngbloods she knows that Martin is not being completely open with her.

There's a satisfactory resolution of the story but as with many literary villains, much of the detail comes out only because the evil person, once immobilized, cannot keep their mouth shut. However, Harris has created a page turner as the focus moves from Aurora's less than idyllic personal life to the puzzle of what happened to the former owners of her home.

This review really has nothing to do with the story itself. Harris is my very favorite author, and I am loving this book as much as the next. My issue is that for some reason, the Kindle version of this book is FULL of grammatical errors, misspellings, and other oddities. I just wonder why, and who edited this darn thing when it was transferred into an e-book. It's still a great story though, and definitely worth a read. So buy it anyway, because Charlaine Harris is amazing and awesome and you wouldn't want to miss out on anything she wrote! You'll just have to try and ignore the foibles, as I am attempting to do, and enjoy the book despite it's bad editing.

This book was even better than "Three Bedrooms, One Corpse." I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story. I really look forward to reading the next book in the series and hope that the author will continue with the second mystery in the next novel.

The Julius House is the fourth book in the Aurora Teagarden series. Aurora "Roe" has finally recovered from her injuries incurred at the end of the last book and is happily engaged to Martin Bartell, her handsome, older, richer boyfriend. For her wedding gift, Martin buys her the Julius house, the perfect house for her. Many people think she is crazy for living there due to the sudden disappearance of the Julius family who used to live there. Roe doesn't worry about it in the slightest and concentrates on glorying in her happily engaged status. She loves being the bride instead of the bridesmaid and pushes any doubts about her soon-to-be-husband aside. When they return from their perfect honeymoon in England, Roe settles in to redecorate and get settled. She is surprised when Martin informs her that two of his friends are down on their luck and that they will be moving into the apartment over the garage. Still, Roe is in love and excited to meet some of Martin's friends and does her best to welcome them. She soon discovers, however, that they are really there to guard her. When pressured, Martin confesses that he is a gunrunner in South America and that he is always worried about retaliation. To take her mind off of this confession, Roe decides that she is going to find out what happened to the Julius family and drags her bodyguard along for the ride. She soon discovers that sometimes it is better to let secrets remain buried...