This book is intended to educate and send a message to a wide audience, both children and adults, about what I feel defines a real mother. In our society, a real mother continues to be thought of as the female who gives birth. Although, that is often the case, it is certainly not always true. With this book, I hope to be a voice for the many women who have had the experience and privilege of raising a child, whether or not they gave birth to that child. May these women be recognized for whom they are: the real mothers.

"Real Murders" is a not so Cosy Mystery that is mildly subversive and moderately entertaining.

...sometimes it's the smallest details that display cultural differences the best.

Our heroine has a distressed friend come unexpectedly to her door. As it's lunchtime, she offers him something to eat. Normal so far - at least my normal - then I read:

It’s hard to perform like Hannah Housewife when you’ve had no warning, but I microwaved a frozen ham and cheese sandwich, poured some potato chips out of a bag, and scraped together a rather depressing salad.

 

And now I'm completely distracted. A grown woman, living alone and she has no food in the house? And she needs "warning* before she can cook a meal? That's weird.

But the truly strange thing, the one I'd like independent confirmation of is: DO PEOPLE REALLY KEEP HAM AND CHEESE SANDWICHES IN THEIR FREEZER?

Surely not. FROZEN ham and cheese sandwiches? FROZEN cheese? FROZEN white bread? FROZEN ham?

And if they do, would they really MICROWAVE one and offer it as FOOD to a guest?

I find I'm more stunned by this than by any of the (fairly nasty) murders.

So, for the American and especially Texan members here, please let me know, is this something someone would actually do?

mainly because the Texan small town life being described is so far from my experience. Harris' writing is smooth and efficient and her character is likeable if a little relentlessly, self-deprecatingly ordinary.

I think I must have imagined the subversive part. There's no sign of it anymore. We're playing pin the blame on the suspect in the traditional way.

I started "Real Murders" once before and abandoned it because I couldn't get comfortable with what I saw as the light approach to such a wicked murder.

I've read a lot more Charlaine Harris since then and her Lily Bard series, starting with "Shakespeare's Landlord" and "A Secret Rage" her unflinching book about rape" showed me what a serious writer she is. So this time, I looked at "Real Murders" with more care and I think I've found something interesting.

I'm reading "Real Murders* for the Cozy Mystery" square. I used a Transfiguration Spell to replace "Truly Terrifying" with "Cozy Mystery* because I never read true crime. I understand why people do but I can never rid myself of a sense of voyeurism. The one exception might be the recent book, focusing on the lives of the women Jack The Ripper killed but, even then, I dislike the continued fame of the Ripper.

"Real Murders" was my last-ditch attempt at a Cozy Mystery after my first two DNFd.

It's about the murder of a member of the Real Murder Club, who meet once a month to talk about true crimes.

It starts with what seems to be a copycat murder of one of the group.

I'm three chapters in and it seems to me that Harris is challenging the ethics of True Crime buffs. I think she's also challenging the idea of *Cozy* mystery, even while writing one. She's suggesting that the process of treating killing someone as the starting point for a puzzle serves to desensitise us to the reality of murder.

Here's what's going through the mind of the narrator, who has discovered the body and called the police.

I knew he was about to tell Gerald that his wife was dead, and I found myself wondering how Gerald would take it. Then I was ashamed. At moments I understood in decent human terms what had happened to a woman I knew, and at moments I seemed to be thinking of Mamie’s death as one of our club’s study cases.

 

This is followed by a police interview where the detective's disgust at the idea of a Real Murder Club is very clear.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Harris does with this. I'm hoping she continues to deliver a cozy mystery while undermining its basis.