Saturday, January 5, 2008

Three Bedrooms, One Corpse-Charlaine Harris

Three Bedrooms, One Corpse
Charlaine Harris
Berkley, March 2008, $7.99, 240 pp.
ISBN 9780425220528

After receiving a sizable inheritance from a library patron, Aurora “Roe” Teagarden quits her job and is helping her mother out at her real estate agency to see if that would interest her as a career. While at the bar waiting for the couple to sign the papers for a house they are buying, Roe’s mother sends her to the Anderson abode to show the home to Martin Bartell, the new plant manager of Pan-Am Agra, and his sister.

When they get there she takes them into the master bedroom; where to everyone’s horror Tonia Lee Green lies dead on the bed. The realtor is cut up and posed in a very lewd position. The police look at the husband because Tonia was constantly cheating on him but his alibi holds up. A second realtor Idella is found murdered in a house for sale and Roe who loves to investigate a mystery starts looking into the murders when she is not being courted by Martin. Roe and Martin fell in love at first sight even though Roe feels he is no stranger to violence and he affirms her belief when she is at the mercy of the killer.

This book was published fourteen years ago but remains a refreshing original regional cozy whose heroine won the hearts of the reader. This engaging southern cozy stands the test of time. Charlaine Harris scribes a well constructed mystery with a bit of romance to produce a memorable work.

Harriet Klausner

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