Sleep Like a Baby

July 3, 2017
In Agatha-finalist Harris’s engrossing 10th Aurora Teagarden novel (after 2016’s All the Little Liars), the Lawrenceton, Ga., librarian and first-time mother comes down with the flu just as her mystery writer husband, Robin Crusoe, is about to leave town for an important writers’ conference. Aurora is relieved when home aide Virginia Mitchell agrees to help with the baby, Sophie, while Robin is away. When Aurora is awakened in the middle of the night by Sophie’s wails, she discovers that Virginia has disappeared—and there’s a body in the back yard. The dead woman turns out to be Tracy Beal, who once stalked Robin and tried to murder Aurora. Did Virginia kill her, or did a neighbor really see Robin lurking about the back yard around the time that Tracy died? Harris smoothly weaves together several seemingly unrelated threads to create a richly layered tale of how the bad choices people make in life can come back to haunt them. 100,000-copy announced first printing; author tour. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary.