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A Bone to Pick
by
Charlaine Harris
amateur sleuth, cozy mystery in a Kindle edition that was published by JABberwocky Literary Agency Inc. on July 31, 2016 and has 222 pages.
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Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Night's Edge, Death's Excellent Vacation, Must Love Hellhounds, Dead Reckoning, Bite, A Secret Rage, Home Improvement: Undead Edition, Deadlocked, An Apple for the Creature, Dead Ever After, The Sookie Stackhouse Companion, Games Creatures Play, After Dead: What Came Next in the World of Sookie Stackhouse, Indigo, Night Shift, Sleep Like a Baby, The Pretenders, A Longer Fall, An Easy Death, The Russian Cage, Small Kingdoms and Other Stories, Real Murders, Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, Dead Until Dark, The Julius House, Dead Over Heels, A Fool and His Honey, Shakespeare’s Landlord, Last Scene Alive, Shakespeare’s Champion, Poppy Done to Death, Shakespeare’s Christmas, Shakespeare’s Trollop, Shakespeare's Counselor
Second in the Aurora Teagarden cozy mystery series and revolving around an amateur sleuth and librarian, Aurora Teagarden, who lives in Lawrenceton, Georgia. It’s been almost a year since Real Murders, 1.
My Take
Lawrenceton is a small town where people tend to know each other with all the nosiness that implies. And it’s a sad start, but then Aurora brings us back with her humorous reference to Lord Peter Wimsey.
Jane was a future thinker when it came to her will. Her reasons for NOT leaving it all to her cousin were downright practical, lol. Harris teases it out forever, keeping me wondering. Some of the tease is a combination of Bubba’s “emphasized” words and the clues Jane has hidden throughout her house. It’s something of a “treasure hunt’.
Yeah, neighbors can get pretty hot under the collar when it comes to trees “dripping” over property lines. Keep in mind the mature height and width of a plant before you plant it.
Harris included a fun conflict with Jane’s stubborn cat, well, not so fun for Roe. Yeahhhh, Aurora doesn’t know anything about cats. Then there’s that delivery . . . ookie!
Aurora spends a lot of time angsting about her lack of dating experience, and her inventory of her bridesmaid dresses does drive it home. It’s all Roe’s whining that keeps downgrading my assessment of the story — it’s Harris’ use of first person protagonist point-of-view from Roe’s perspective that keeps us informed as to Roe’s state of mind.
Father Scott reveals some of his back history, and he provides some background on what he does with the church. I dunno, I don’t think Scott will work out; he gets queasy over some of Roe’s murder stories. The description Harris provides of Jack Burns is enough to turn me off, a great way to create a rounded character without resorting to the info dump.
One of my niggles is the conflict resolution at the end. It made no sense that the bad guys would be so accepting. It was such a 180.
Harris has an easygoing pace and uses the ending to set us up for Three Bedrooms, One Corpse, 3.
Ooh, and Roe learns some of her mother’s weaknesses.
The Story
The inheritance is a-mazing, all except for that skull. There’s worse to come, as Arthur Smith and his new bride are moving in across the street from Jane’s old house.
On the plus side, Roe’s dating life is picking up in unexpected ways.
The Characters
Aurora “Roe” Teagarden, now a part-time librarian but not destitute, favors Jack the Ripper. Aida Teagarden, a successful real estate agent and Aurora’s mother, is marrying John Queensland, a wealthy businessman and a Lizzie Borden expert. Aurora’s father, his second wife, Betty Jo, and their son, Phillip, have moved to California. John has children: Avery and his wife are expecting a baby, and John David.
Aida’s real estate agency, Select Realty, includes Eileen Norris, Aida’s second-in-command; Patty Cloud is the receptionist; and, other realtors including Mackie Knight and Idella Yates.
Amina Day, a legal secretary, is Aurora’s best friend since forever, except she moved to Houston. Hugh Price is a lawyer in Houston whom Amina has been dating. Joe Nell Day, Amina’s mom, owns a women’s dress shop, Great Day. Amina’s dad is a bookkeeper. Amina has a younger brother in grad school.
Robin Crusoe, a mystery writer, left Lawrenceton. James Artis is the professor who had a heart attack in Real Murders. Phil is subleasing Robin’s apartment in Atlanta.
The previously married the Reverend Aubrey Scott is Lawrenceton’s new Episcopal priest. Members of his congregation include the arthritic Laura.
Lawrenceton PD
Aurora had been dating Detective Arthur Smith, who is now marrying Detective Lynn Liggett. The pregnant Lynn Liggett; their new house used to belong to the Laverys. Aurora had gotten to know many of the policemen, including Detective Henske and the irascible Detective Sergeant Jack Burns who even scares the men under him,
Jane Engle, a retired school librarian who now volunteers at the public library, had been the club secretary for the Real Murders book group. Madeleine, named for Jane’s favorite Victorian poisoner, Madeleine Smith, is her “sick” pet cat. Jane’s mother had been Mrs John Elgar Engle, who had lived in a gorgeous mansion. Parnell Engle is Jane’s aging cousin; Leah is his wife.
Torrance Rideout had been Jane’s neighbor. He’s married to Marcia, who’s great at entertaining with too much love for the bottle. They have a mother-in-law apartment that they’ve rented out to Ben Greer (Real Murders, 1) and Mark Kaplan. The McMans and the Inces (Maggie is their daughter-in-law) are also Jane’s new neighbors.
Bubba Sewell is Jane’s lawyer and about to run for state representative against Carl Underwood. Now Bubba is dating Lizanne Buckley, a kind, lazy, beautiful woman who works as a receptionist at the Power and Light Company. Bubba’s first wife had been Carey Osland, who now works at Marcus Hatfield; her second husband, Mike Osland, disappeared. Linda is Carey’s young daughter. Burger King had been the Oslands’ dog; now the Oslands’ have Waldo, a dachshund.
LeMaster Cane, a black businessman, had also been a Real Murders member.
“Jane was the only white person who ever looked at me like she couldn’t tell what color I am.”
The wicked Melanie Clark and somewhat disappointed Sally Allison, a sort-of-friend and a reporter for the local paper, had been members of the Real Murders. Sally is a single mom with a grown son, Perry. Sally is currently dating the reserved Detective Paul Allison, her ex-husband’s brother.
The messy Macon Turner is the newspaper editor. Macon has a son, Edward, who took off for, we think, India.
Lawrenceton Public Library
Lillian Schmidt is a narrow-minded, gossipy co-worker and not really a friend. Sam Clerrick is the head of the library and not good at people management.
Miz Darwell is a library patron. Mortimer House is an orphans’ home where Jane and Marcia were on the board. Brides for whom Roe had been a bridesmaid include Sally Saxby who married Hunter ten years ago, Linda Erhardt, Franny Vargas, and a college roommate.
The Oakes case had been in the Bahamas. Alfred de Marigny had been Sir Harry Oakes‘ son-in-law.
The Cover and Title
The cover has a light coral background with lighter coral polka dots and two leafy scrolls that frame the slanted title in white with a black shadow in the middle of the cover. The author’s name is in a deep coral at the top. At the bottom is a row of shelved multi-colored books with a white outline around them. On the right side is a pair of glasses a’slant the books with the series info in an almost-brown coral just above the glasses.
The title is A Bone to Pick, which could refer to that skull or the neighborly quarrel.
