Image: Crown Media
Charlaine Harris (Aurora Teagarden mysteries)
Longtime fans of Hallmark Movies and Mysteries are no doubt familiar with Aurora “Roe” Teagarden, the lovable librarian-turned-sleuth portrayed by Candace Cameron Bure in the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries series. What they may not know is that the films are based on books by author Charlaine Harris.
Real Murders was published in 1990. It featured sweet-mannered librarian Roe Teagarden, a member of a true-crime appreciation club. Her hobby comes in handy when one of the club members is found murdered. She helps solve the mystery.
It’s hard not to fall in love with Roe, an everywoman surrounded by flamboyant characters, including a pushy southern mother. It also doesn’t hurt that she uses phrases such as “She was so dead.”
Harris followed Real Murders with nine more books in the Aurora Teagarden series. They include:
Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery (1990)
A Bone to Pick (1992)
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (1994)
The Julius House (1995)
Dead Over Heels (1996)
A Fool And His Money (1999)
Last Scene Alive (2002)
Poppy Done to Death (2003)
All the Little Liars (2016)
Sleep Like a Baby (2017)
Hallmark Movies and Mysteries adapted the first book in the series into a film in 2015. Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: A Bone to Pick, starred Candace Cameron Bure as Aurora and Marilu Henner as her mother. Since then, a new installment has followed roughly every six months. The sixteenth film, Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Til Death Do Us Part, debuted on June 13 in Hallmark Movies and Mysteries. The seventeenth, Aurora Teagarden: Honeymoon, Honeymurder. will debut in August.
Charlaine Harris
A prolific writer, Charlaine Harris has produced more than five series of books, including the Real Murders stories; the Gunnie Rose Series; the Harper Connelly Mysteries; the Midnight Texas Series; and the Southern Vampire series, which was the basis for the hit HBO show True Blood.
She has a great website that is updated regularly: charlaineharris.com.
Which Aurora Teagarden is your favorite?