Wrongs Made Right
Okay, so this one was one of the biggest concerns people had here that I haven't covered yet. I keep getting distracted. Recently because I dubbed the new season of True Blood "The Season of the Too Many Ghost Daddies". It's Ghost Daddy fucking Bingo, with one token Ghost Granny (Adele). Behold:
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** Spoiler**
In the Aurora Teagarden series it was pretty obvious who the murderer was in most books. Like in the last one - you knew it had to do with the Uppity women and when you were told about someone having to die to let someone in, you knew that this was why Poppi was killed. And then pops in a neighbor who was the next on the list to be admitted. Oh, and there are wet prints on the patio and she`s a swimmer.
Not to mention how Roe goes from saying she can`t have kids to saying that she doesn`t ovulate *much*. You just know she`ll be pregnant then and then her pants are suddenly too tight.
Not that I mind. I read the series for her descriptions of people. That`s the really interesting thing in that series. And I love the way CH writes. I really enjoy her language.
In the SVM series she throws up way more balls and the series is not so much a mystery/crime series so solving crimes are not center stage like in the Aurora Teagarden series. That makes the SVM much more unpredictable.
Oh - and like that lady in Murder She Wrote - I would never ever be close to Aurora Teagarden or visit her little town. Being close to her seems like a murder sentence just waiting to happen. :-D
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Not everything she does goes anywhere. I can't really remember the events in Aurora that well, being that it's about a year since I read them, and only once. But I can remember that Martin's life didn't come in and make a big impact on Roe's life - it was vaguely referred to and not brought in as a plotline. Some readers say that means it's a "waste" of that character, except it's really not. It's completely predictable that Martin's life goes on to have some serious impact on Roe's. Martin dies, and the conditions die, we never really find out what Martin's doing, and there is no "lesson" to be learnt from Martin's past, no over-moralising. It's something that has an impact, but the book doesn't become about what Roe's life is with the dodgy Martin - she's mostly left out of it.
I would argue that the Sookie series is really one of her best - because it has so many things that are unfinished, and it's more unpredictable. But the fantasy angle allows that more than the mystery angle does. So it's possible.
Lol - no - it is a murder sentence waiting to happen. :D
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No, not everything but so much more than in the SVM.
I think Martin was a great way to show how Roe may be a lady of conventions but can still make spur of the moment decisions. How she can accept a proposal while knocked out and even shady dealings in the past but no shady dealings in the present and definitely not not being told about them. She is no doormat even if she accepts out of the ordinary stuff from him. I kind of see Martin in that way. I mean, she accepted his "pirate side" (which was considerable - remember how he just wanted to bury the body of his niece`s husband) but stood up against it too - his former wife rebelled against it and that didn`t work out too well for them.
Did you ever compare Arthur to Bill? It hit me in the last book. They are very different but the way they obsess over Roe/Sookie after having first deceived her and broken her heart.
I think it is. I do think CH is a better fantasy writer than mystery writer since the basis of mystery writing after all is shocking/surprising people when they read the last page of the book. And also making it at least slightly credible. I mean, Poppi had - on a normal Saturday morning where she was going to go to a meeting with the Uppity women - 1, her mother over to get the letter her father had confessed he raped her when she was 13, 2, her lover`s wife and 3, her former lover`s wife over. And these were entirely unrelated visits, unwanted/unasked for by Poppi, and they all just happened to happen during the same hour.
Not that it really matters since her books have so many other qualities - you just can`t read them as traditional mystery books.
Or a death sentence by murder (not sure if there is a difference but when reading it again it could seem as if I meant being sentenced for murder - not to be murdered).
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I think it was too - I would have been more worried about what Martin was doing. And I liked that the former wife was shown as not being able to handle that stuff. I like the hint of that tumultuousness that there was in Martin's past.
I did - not side by side, but the way that they couldn't just give it up. Of course, Arthur is nuttier than Bill.
She is a better fantasy writer than a mystery writer. I think it gives her more scope for having things be much more plausible, and allows her to insert different interests. I mean, in Roe's world, it's only Martin (and Angel and Shelby) who have differing goals and outlooks. With Sookie's world, it's the various were groups, the vampires, the fairies - all of who have murky goals, and definitely differing goals and outlooks. It brings the ability to build a different and more complex world out - and CH absolutely excels at that sort of thing, with the way that character slot into each other.
Lol - you're so optimistic that you believe you'd be the doer, not the victim. :D
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Haha, no, I meant linguistically. That the first sentence was meant to be that one would be killed but that, when I read it later, wondered if it could have meant that one would have been a murderer - so I made it clearer in round two. Zizz iz nåt my langvitch, you know :-D
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No - it read to me first time round as if you'd be the one that died. So you had it right that time. Of course, if you're in America, there's no "good" side to be on - both of them get harsh sentences.
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