The Julius House by Charlaine Harris

Description from Amazon:

Aurora Teagarden is happily preparing for her wedding to dashing business executive Martin Bartell. As a wedding gift, Martin buys her the house of her dreams: the “Julius house,” infamously named after the family who vanished from the house without a trace six years ago. As Roe sets about renovating and decorating her new home, she’s never felt happier.

Then Martin suddenly rents the small apartment on their new property to an old army buddy and his wife, who seem to be more bodyguard than tenant, and Roe is sure her husband-to-be is keeping secrets. To take her mind off her suspicions, she opens her own unofficial investigation into the Julius family cold case. But when an axe-wielding stranger attacks her, Roe must determine whether it’s her husband’s secrets, the mystery of the Julius family’s fates, or both, that have put her own life on the chopping block.

 

I had read the Sookie Stackhouse novels before, so thought I’d try out this one in the series (in the wrong order again) that I’d heard were Hallmark movies.

 

The premise here is quite different, so with people going missing and an axe-wielding stranger, I figured this would be full of action. It turns out not really. Sure, it has its moments, but for the most part it’s Aurora being in love with her new husband but questioning whether she actually knows him or not. And we really never get to find out that much about him.

 

The first thing that blew me away was the ease with which he just buys her a house as a gift. A house. Who does that? And since she has inherited a large sum of money, she buys him a farm. A farm? I know there was a sentimental reason behind it, but wow – that’s a bit ostentatious. And weirdly enough, even though she has all this money, she baulks at getting room service at a hotel later as it’s expensive??? Hmmm.

 

The investigation into the missing persons was a good one, and that along with the introduction of her husband’s new “friends” to “help” at the house (read into it: bodyguard) made this story only slightly better than the under average book it was. It was really slow with so much time spent on Aurora wondering if she married the right person and vacillating between thinking her husband is an Adonis and they are soulmates to not trusting who he is. Even when she meets (stalks) his ex-wife who warns her he keeps secrets, she decides not to ask about them. Um, really? Oh, and then the best reveal of all. He comes clean and tells her he is an arms dealer. An illegal gun smuggler. Her response? Oh well, at least it’s not drugs. OH MY WORD!!! And who goes to their ex for couple counselling? This was all very strange.

 

Not my cup of tea so this will be my one and only Aurora Teagarden mystery.