all the little liars

3 stars

Let me start by saying I love Charlaine Harris’ books and I really enjoyed the Aurora Teagarden series. I was so excited that the author had re-visited this character and couldn’t wait to read the book. I even went to her book signing event and had the book autographed by her.

That said, I was pretty disappointed in this book. The writing was fun and classic Harris, but the story itself was pretty thin and blah. This character has so much potential for interesting storylines, and I felt like that potential was just wasted in this book. 

The book starts off with Aurora married to successful mystery book author Robin Crusoe and pregnant with her first child. Her 15 year old half-brother Phillip is living with them and is looking forward to starting high school in January. Everything is going well and the Christmas break is just about to start when Phillip, teenage twins Josh and Joss and 11 year old Liza disappear apparently without a trace. The parents frantically search for the kids but they are no where to be found. As the investigation continues, it’s discovered that another teenage boy is also missing.

The rest of the story follows Aurora’s frustration and worry about what happened to the children. Unlike past books, Aurora is much more timid and hesitant to insert herself into the investigation until the very end of the book. This makes the book far less interesting than it could have been. The ending is pretty abrupt and unsatisfying. It’s almost like the author didn’t know where to take the story so just threw in some half-baked ideas and called it a day. (It pains me to say this as I really do like this author a lot, but it is what it is.)

At the end of the day, it’s a quick. ok read, but you won’t be missing out on too much if you decide to pass on this book.