A Z M Monir Hossain Z M Monir Hossain itibaren Sri Mahaphot, Nakhon Chai Si District, Nakhon Pathom, Tayland
** spoiler alert ** I can't even make my rant funny. If you don't want to read my diatribe, discontinue reading. This is your warning. While there are elements to this story that I do like, I'm greatly annoyed with two main points. Firstly, if you run a realty company and stuff has been stolen from the houses you are selling for TWO YEARS, why do you not have better security of the keys? The keys are on a board in alphabetical order in the middle of the office. Seriously? Even when women start to be murdered in the houses you are selling, you don't think to have your realtors at least sign out the keys? Also, I don't know if it is just in my dad's experience or if it is the way things are done, but the only time valuable stuff is kept in the houses is when the owners still live there or the owner has passed away. In the case of the owner still living there, they are the ones who have access to the keys and the realtors only show the houses when the owners are home. SECURE THE KEYS. Otherwise, this story is not believable to me. Secondly, the way African Americans are portrayed in this series makes me a little uncomfortable. The protagonist keeps pointing out the "blackness" of some of the secondary characters, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot, subplot, or red herrings. On one page she refers to a woman as "a black." Not even "a black person." Just "a black." On page 150, alone, there were references to Mackie standing out "like a chocolate drop on a wedding cake." Then, a paragraph down, "Mackie was always quiet in social settings, at least in one involving whites. For all I knew, he sang solo in the choir at the African Methodist Episcopal Church." While, in and of itself, these comments are not blatently racist, they're more like soft racism. What does it have to do with anything else in the story? Why are their comments like this peppered throughout the novel? Is she trying to show the segregation still inherent in the small-town South? If so, she does a horrible job at it. It reminds me of the ppl who start a statement with "I'm not a racist, but..." You can almost always count on their next statement being racist. Or the dude that says "I'm not a racist because there is a black guy I talk to at work." I'm just failing to see what Ms. Harris's point behind this is. And I hate Aurora's taste in men. Aurora whines about her relationships constantly. She's 30 and not married. gasp! Her life obviously can't begin until she has a ring on her finger. Maybe once she gets hitched she'll do something with her fictional life besides whining and sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. Travel or something. And the mystery is only meh, again. I knew who it was about half-way through the book. This is not your best writing, Charlaine. With that being said, a friend loaned these books to me and I'll continue to read them...but I won't go out of my way to spend any money on getting copies for myself. Call it stubborness or stupidity or morbid curiosity (my friend says stubborness), but I'll read at least one more in this bloody annoying atrocious series. Surely it will get better?