Charlaine Harris - A Bone to Pick (An Aurora Teagarden Mystery)

A Bone to Pick

An

Aurora Teagarden

Mystery

M

Charlaine Harris

Praise for
A Bone to Pick
Harris provides some genuinely funny scenes as Aurora breezily unravels the murderers identity... supported by an appealing cast of southern gothic characters. Publishers Weekly
A pleasant, fast read... Enjoyable. AllReaders.com
Real Murders
Real Murders is the first adventure for Harriss perceptive protagonist and I eagerly look forward to the second... Harriss story alternately charms and chills, a difficult combination she manages with aplomb and brilliance. Carolyn Hart, award-winning author of
Set Sail for Murder
An ingenious plot and sufficient flow of blood keep the pages flying in Harriss novel... Harris draws the guilty and the innocent into an engrossing tale while inventing a heroine as capable and potentially complex as P.D. Jamess Cordelia Gray.
Publishers Weekly
One of the most original premises Ive ever come across in a mystery, and the whole book is great bloody fun. Barbara Paul, author of
The Fourth Wall
Clever pacing along with ample red herrings and judi- ciously placed clues keep Harriss story moving briskly. Lets hope for another fast-paced mystery featuring Au- rora and her friends.
School Library Journal
continued . . .

Praise for Charlaine Harriss
Southern Vampire novels featuring Sookie Stackhouse The goofy charm of Harriss world, with its humor and occasional terror, is what makes Dead Until Dark so delightful.
The Denver Post
Harris brings off this blend of mystery and vampires better than most.
San Francisco Chronicle
A fun, fast, funny, and wonderfully intriguing blend of vampire and mystery thats hard to put down and should not be missed.
Susan Sizemore, New York Times bestselling author of Primal Heat and the Laws of the Blood series
Praise for Charlaine Harriss
Harper Connelly Mysteries
Too much fun.
Wilmington Star-News
Harris debuts a series that just might surpass all her oth- ers in popularity... Will have readers dying for more. Booklist
Fast pacing, excellent character development, and a strong story line... This fabulous opening gambit affirms that every series Charlaine Harris creates is utterly fantastic.
Midwest Book Review
Praise for Charlaine Harriss
Lily Bard Mysteries
Lily Bard [is] the equal of Kay Scarpetta, Kinsey Mill- hone, and V. I. Warshawski.
Library Journal
First-rate mystery.
Midwest Book Review

Lily Bard gives as good as she gets. The reading is fast
and the actions faster, proving that women really are the better half.
Mostly Murder
One of the best-drawn and most-compelling characters in contemporary mystery fictioncomplex, smart, street- wise, tough.
Booklist
Praise for
A Secret Rage
Compelling... Powerful.
The Boston Globe
Not many novels, and no mysteries, have shaken me as brutally as A Secret Rage .
Los Angeles Times
Absorbing tension... Effective crime fiction. Booklist
A thriller built on a vital issue... Riveting. Publishers Weekly
Praise for
Sweet and Deadly
A first-rate mystery with special character... As con- vincing as it is surprising in the final revelation. The Washington Post
Harris writes neatly and with assurance, and she avoids the goo that makes equivalent books so sticky. The New York Times Book Review
Packs a perennial punch. It offers a rarity in popular fic- tion: an unromanticized portrait of a southern girl. Philadelphia Inquirer

Ace Books by Charlaine Harris
The Sookie Stackhouse Novels
dead until dark
living dead in dallas
club dead
dead to the world
dead as a doornail
definitely dead
all together dead
many bloody returns
Edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner Berkley Prime Crime Books by Charlaine Harris
The Harper Connelly Mysteries
grave sight
grave surprise
an ice cold grave
The Lily Bard Mysteries
shakespeares landlord
shakespeares champion
shakespeares trollop
shakespeares counselor
The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries
real murders
a bone to pick
sweet and deadly
a secret rage

A Bone to Pick
An
Aurora Teagarden
Mystery
M
Charlaine Harris

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. A BONE TO PICK
A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author Copyright 1992 by Charlaine Harris.
Interior text design by Laura K. Corless. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions. For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. ISBN: 1-4295-9520- BERKLEY PRIME CRIME
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. The name BERKLEY PRIME CRIME and the BERKLEY PRIME CRIME design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

For Patrick, Timothy, and Julia

Chapter One
A
In less than a year, I went to three weddings and one funeral. By late May (at the second wedding but be- fore the funeral) I had decided it was going to be the worst year of my life.
The second wedding was actually a happy one from my point of view, but my smile muscles ached all the next day from the anxious grin Id forced to my lips. Being the daughter of the bride felt pretty pe- culiar.
My mother and her fianc strolled between the fold- ing chairs arranged in her living room, ended up before the handsome Episcopalian priest, and Aida Brattle Teagarden became Mrs. John Queensland.
In the oddest way, I felt my parents had left home while I had stayed. My father and his second wife, ~ 1 ~

~ Charlaine Harris ~
with my half brother, Phillip, had moved across the country to California in the past year. Now my mother, though shed still be living in the same town, would def- initely have new priorities.
That would be a relief.
So I beamed at John Queenslands married sons and their spouses. One of the wives was pregnantmy mother would be a stepgrandmother! I smiled gra- ciously at Lawrencetons new Episcopal priest, Aubrey Scott. I oozed goodwill at the real estate salespeople from my mothers business. I grinned at my best friend, Amina Day, until she told me to relax.
You dont have to smile every second, she whis- pered from one corner of her mouth, while the rest of her face paid respectful attention to the cake-cutting ceremony. I instantly rearranged my face into more sober lines, thankful beyond expression that Amina had been able to get a few days off from her job in Houston as a legal secretary. But later, at the recep- tion, she told me my mothers wedding wasnt her only reason for coming back to Lawrenceton for the weekend.