Reviewed By: Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM
![[2 stars]](../images/spots/3_paw_20.gif)
A Fool and His Honey
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Charlaine Harris
Class/Genre: Mystery Amateur Sleuth
Series: Aurora Teagarden # 6
Worldwide Mystery, 2001, $5.99, 253pp
This is my first Charlaine Harris experience and I was not impressed. The cover implies its likely to be a cozy. The cover blurb implies the same thing It appears formulaic to the genre through most of the very illogical story. However, the first body is bludgeoned with a hatchett. There are subsequent murders which occur on stage and they are bloody.
What I really object to though is the plot. The sleuth Roe and her hubby find themselves suddenly in possession of the baby of their niece, probably. With the disappearance of the niece, and the corpse of her husband in their yard, their solution is to drive to Ohio and give this "probable" grandnephew to somebody, anybody, they're not sure who, even though they suspect maybe the child was kidnapped since no one knew about the pregnancy, and Roe is feeling cheated by not being able to have a child of her own. Now isn't that just what every infertile couple with a foundling or infant relative would do?
After that the plot gets rather convoluted. The various motives of the characters revealed at the resolution make no sense to me. They do not explain the choices the characters made, even when the author creates them as illogical fallible people.
Yes the clues are there for those who like to unpuszle with the sleuth, in fact they shout at you. But it won't compensate for other flaws.
I'm willing to bet that people who are fans of this series will definitely hate the ending. While the series may generally be cozy, this ending will not give you a cozy feeling. I felt irritated and sad. Regular fans may feel that even more than this first timer.
Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Carol Schwaderer Dickinson - RAM
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