Book Review: Dead Over Heels

Author: Charlaine Harris
Title: Dead Over Heels
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: Aug 5, 2008
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: What's the world coming to when you can't relax with a glass of ice-cold beverage in your own backyard without a body falling from the sky into your garden?

Part-time librarian and amateur investigator Roe Teagarden has good reason to ask herself this question when the remains of one of the Lawrenceton, Georgia police departments finest catapults into her flower bed. The mystery deepens as two federal agents arrive to investigate the murder. Its only when Madeleine the cat provides a clue that Roe begins to realize that using her yard as a temporary landfill may have been no accident and that Roe herself could be in terrible danger


Review:I started reading this series when I stumbled across one of the movies on Hallmarks Movies and Mysteries. I enjoyed the movie, mostly because I hadn't read any of this series before. Dead Over Heels is one of the movies I've seen, and I have to say, if you have read the book you will be shaking your head quite a bit with the changes they've made to Aurora. I mean, Candace Cameron as Aurora? DJ Tanner as Aurora?

All of the quirkiness that Aurora has in the books is gone in the movies. I would have loved to have seen Candace wearing Aurora's daily eye glasses, especially her Saturday specs. I understand that their is a big jump between the time the book was written and these movies, but wowie.

But back to the book, Charlaine really keeps the action flowing in the lives of her characters. Aurora is married to Martin, and now her ex Dectective Arthur is also separated from his wife. Geeze! This coming from a girl who seemingly had a hard time getting dates? I guess all that money she inherited helped.

So this mystery involves a police officer being killed and falling out of plane and landing in Aurora's yard. Then there's the librarian that is beaten as well as Aurora's bodyguard's hubby getting knocked out.

Lots of weird goings on, with little explanation for why. I still have a hard time figuring why a supposedly wealthy "Roe" is working part time at the library.

Unlike most cozy mysteries, I didn't really feel like Roe is a sleuth. She did help her friend Sally out in some sleuthing, but overall, I felt like this was a day in the life of Aurora Teagarden sort of book, and I'm not really sure if Aurora is a person I like all that much. Her husband, I really didn't care for at all. About the only character I really liked was Madeline the cat, who liked to walk across Martin's Mercedes. I think I would too.

The ending was one I didn't see coming, but then again, I just couldn't figure it out. I even went back and re-read parts of the ending, to see if I could understand it better, but no.

I'm going to keep plugging along with this series, because I'm a glutton for punishment. (Also I really want to go back and read The Julius House, because that was the first movie I saw and I want to see how it compares)