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A review by jilltreftz
Real Murders by Charlaine Harris
3.0
I gobbled up over half the Aurora Teagarden series last week b/c I was intrigued by the idea of the "Real Murders Club" in this particular book.
While I enjoyed this book and its sequels, there were a few things that bothered or puzzled me, most of which I believe to be a direct result of the series having been begun in the late 1980s in the Deep South.
1) There's a moment where Aurora looks at two characters who are known to be dating each other and is somehow like surprised or shocked to realize that they're Having Sex. These characters are unmarried independent adults in their late 20s and everyone knows they're soon to be engaged. Yet repeatedly people allude to or are surprised by the fact that one person's car was at the other person's house! OMG! Sex! Between consenting adults in a relationship! (I was utterly baffled by this. Is it a function of the novel being set in a small town? In the South? In 1988 or so? I mean, have things *really* changed THAT much?)
2) Throughout the series, race is ... weird. I have never read any other Charlaine Harris novels, so I have no idea if this is usual for her or if it reflects the attitudes of small-town Georgia in the late 80s/early 90s, or if I'm just missing something, but every. single. character. who is black is *immediately* and *repeatedly* described as black. It's never "so-and-so, who worked with my mother." It's always "So-and-so, who was the black realtor in my mother's office." On the one hand, Harris isn't pretending that her characters don't notice race, or that racism isn't still a real, pervasive problem. (In one novel, said lone black realtor is suspected of a crime largely because he is black.) Yet at the same time, there are no main characters of color at all. Every black character (and as of yet, I can't recall any non-white characters who are not black) is very much Other. In that sense, the books (and I'm speaking of the series, as far as I've read it) seem to me to contribute to issues of racial division. But, again, I readily acknowledge that this book is set in a time and place that I don't have access to.
3) This isn't relevant to this particular book, but rather to several of the later sequels....but speaking of weirdness, the storyline surrounding Aurora's husband (she does eventually acquire one) is weird beyond the telling of it.
While I enjoyed this book and its sequels, there were a few things that bothered or puzzled me, most of which I believe to be a direct result of the series having been begun in the late 1980s in the Deep South.
1) There's a moment where Aurora looks at two characters who are known to be dating each other and is somehow like surprised or shocked to realize that they're Having Sex. These characters are unmarried independent adults in their late 20s and everyone knows they're soon to be engaged. Yet repeatedly people allude to or are surprised by the fact that one person's car was at the other person's house! OMG! Sex! Between consenting adults in a relationship! (I was utterly baffled by this. Is it a function of the novel being set in a small town? In the South? In 1988 or so? I mean, have things *really* changed THAT much?)
2) Throughout the series, race is ... weird. I have never read any other Charlaine Harris novels, so I have no idea if this is usual for her or if it reflects the attitudes of small-town Georgia in the late 80s/early 90s, or if I'm just missing something, but every. single. character. who is black is *immediately* and *repeatedly* described as black. It's never "so-and-so, who worked with my mother." It's always "So-and-so, who was the black realtor in my mother's office." On the one hand, Harris isn't pretending that her characters don't notice race, or that racism isn't still a real, pervasive problem. (In one novel, said lone black realtor is suspected of a crime largely because he is black.) Yet at the same time, there are no main characters of color at all. Every black character (and as of yet, I can't recall any non-white characters who are not black) is very much Other. In that sense, the books (and I'm speaking of the series, as far as I've read it) seem to me to contribute to issues of racial division. But, again, I readily acknowledge that this book is set in a time and place that I don't have access to.
3) This isn't relevant to this particular book, but rather to several of the later sequels....but speaking of weirdness, the storyline surrounding Aurora's husband (she does eventually acquire one) is weird beyond the telling of it.