Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris is the writer of the Aurora Teagarden and Lily Bard mysteries, as well as the extremely successful Sookie Stackhouse supernatural romance/suspense series, about a telepathic barmaid with a collection of otherworldly suitors, and a couple standalone novels. While the Teagarden mysteries are fun, Harris seems to have found her niche with the Lily Bard and Sookie Stackhouse series. Both feature practical-minded Southern heroines with blue collar jobs (Lily begins her series as a house cleaner, Sookie is a barmaid) and an unfortunate habit of discovering gruesome murder scenes. While her plot development and descriptive skills are not particularly remarkable, Harris’s sense of humor and deft characterization elevate her books to Wordcandy status.


Aftertaste:
Someone hire this woman an editor! Or smack her existing one! Her books are full of little mistakes--she screws up character names, and once she confused Lily Bard's hometown with that of another one of her heroines. (Admittedly, I only noticed because an eagle-eyed reader had neatly crossed it out and written the correct town name into the library copy that I read. Still, once you've had these little issues pointed out to you, you tend to keep an eye out for more of 'em, and there were, sadly, plenty more to be found.)

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
The Women of the Otherworld series, by Kelley Armstrong

Website:
http://www.charlaineharris.com/ -