Grave Sight (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 1)

Harper Connelly has many problems that she needs to deal with on a day to day basis but is a big believer in that when the world hands you lemons, you make yourself some lemonade. Harper and her step-brother Tolliver earn their living from Harper's ability to seek the dead, a "gift" she received as a result of being struck by lightning when she was young. It may not please everyone that the two profit from death as such, but Harper knows that the newly bereaved aren't always in the right place to be appreciative of her services. Drawn to where the dead lay, and receiving mental images of what brought them to their death is the limit of what Harper provides for her fee. It is never her wish to be drawn into what comes after, but on this latest job, it's unavoidable.

The small community of Sarne in the Ozarks had accepted that one of the town's finest sons committed suicide out in the wilderness but there was still the question as to what became of his girlfriend, supposedly in his company that day. Harper locates the body of the missing girl and delivers to the disbelieving family the news that both Dell Teague and Teenie Hopkins were murdered. Sarne's small-minded sheriff and suspicious townsfolk turn on Harper and Tolliver, something they are sadly used to but not to this extent. There is hate and there is pain in all the relationships the two come across in this town, and they are sure that most of the hostility being shown to them emanates from the direction of whoever killed them. Dell and Teenie's killers still walk amongst their families and friends, a fact not lost on anyone involved.

Harris has written an edgy little novel with numerous undercurrents running through that unsettle and have the reader rising more than a few questions of their own. No great pains have been taken with creating a plot of any intricacy but there is value in the strength of the stifling, flat-eyed air of menace that pervades throughout the whole read. It's easy to visualize the whole town and walls closing in on the two interlopers, who stand out in a crowd for other reasons than Harper's psychic connections to the dead.

The narrative here is terse and unfriendly which suits perfectly both the characters and the oily facade of prosperity and normality that the town of Sarne, Arkansas is trying so desperately to project. There isn't much to like in Harper's character, and her relationship with her step-brother doesn't sit comfortably either. Harper does however come across as talented and damaged (always interesting); always keeping something of her true self in check, even given that this novel has been written in the first-person narrative. As common with a series read and a first entry at that, there are the threads of possible future plot lines in GRAVE SIGHT to compel the reader to seek out the next book.

Author Charlaine Harris has written two other novels in the Harper Connelly series: GRAVE SIGHT (2005) and ICE COLD GRAVE (due for release September 2007). Harris is best known for her Southern Vampire (Sookie Stackhouse) novels and has written two other series, as well as several standalone works and short story collections.

Grave Sight (2005) is the first fantasy novel in the Harper Connelly series. Harper was struck by lightning as a girl and after that she was able to sense the presence of bodies. When she is close enough to the body, she also relives the death experience.

In this novel, Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, have come to Sarne -- a small town in the Ozarks -- to find a body. Dell Teague, a teenage boy, had been found dead six months ago, but his girlfriend Monteen Hopkins had not been missed until the next day and the body still hasn't been found. Dell's mother, Sybil Teague, hires Harper to find the missing girl.

Harper finds Teeny's body and faints from the shock of reliving the youngster's murder. Then Harper and Tolliver have to stay in Sarne awaiting confirmation of identity by the state police lab before being paid. Harper finds out more about Teeny and Dell and even meets Helen Hopkins, Monteen's mother.

Harper also meets a friendly policeman, Hollis Boxleitner, who had been married to Teeny's sister. Sally Boxleitner had died before Teeny and Harper soon finds out that she too had been murdered. Then another murder occurs and Harper is told to stay in town.

In this story, the common people of Sarne are generally hospitable, but Sheriff Harvey Bransom is very hostile. His widowed sister Sybil and her lawyer Paul Edwards seem to be more antsy than usual. Other people associated with the principals are even more hostile than the sheriff. And then there are the state police investigators.

Harper has a continuing problem with people who believe that her ability to find the dead is fraudulent or downright weird. Some even believe her to be an agent of the devil. She has been stoned as a witch and once she barely escaped from a mob. She suffers from a bad case of kill the messenger.

Having this talent has made her life more difficult. Yet she also has the consolation of giving closure to the relatives of missing persons. Still, Harper is not always successful in finding the missing bodies, particularly when the victim has been taken far away from the scene of the crime. Her own sister is one such case.

Harper and Tolliver are very close. Although they came from different families, her mother and his father were married when they were older children. Since these parents were alcoholics and drug users, their children were more neglected than parented. Harper and Tolliver raised their younger siblings with a little help from Mark, Tolliver's older brother.

Having personal experience with such neglected and abused children, I find Harper's backstory to be fairly typical of such cases, even to the children trying to avoid the governmental authorities. Naturally, these two are very protective of -- and dependent upon -- each other.

This story is an unusual variant on the murder mystery. As with the Southern Vampire series, the paranormal element introduces a wild card into the plot. Although Harper's rare talent is powerful, it also has strict limits; for example, she only perceives what the victim sees in the last few moments. Rarely does she know the identity of a killer.

Highly recommended for Harris fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of mysterious murders, exceptional talents and unusual persons.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This was the first Harper story I read and it was dull. I enjoyed the Sookie story series. I won't be buying any more stories with this character. She just bored me and was pretty pathetic.

After partaking of the first books in both the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series and the Harper Connelly series (Grave Sight & Grave Surprise), I have to say I prefer Harper and her brother Tolliver to Sookie and her friends. The Sookie series is much lighter fare with humor abounding. Her exploits revolve around her ability to read the minds of the living and her involvement with vampires who have 'recently come out of the coffin' and are now living in her hometown of Bon Temps. Harper, whose job it is to wander the country with her brother Tolliver reading the minds of dead folks, often encounters prejudice, disbelief and violence on the part of those who've hired her to find out how and why their loved ones have died. In my mind, the big difference between these series is that the Sookie Stackhouse novels put more emphasis on romance with a side order of mystery. The Harper Connelly novels are mysteries with a little dash of romance to season the storyline. Many of the negative reviews here seem to be from Sookie fans who don't like the path Ms. Harris has taken in the Harper novels. I think it's fine that she's begun writing books that may interest a different audience.

As a avid fan of Charlaine Harris, I grabbed this book and looked forward to being entertained. Well, yes I enjoyed the book; however, the story wasn't as adhesive as her novels usually are. This is understandable as she is beginning a new series, but I hope the sequel has more substance to it. Her characters are well shaped; but repeating the same ground very times was irrating. While I was disappointed by several parts of the story, I eagerly look forward to the sequel and hope Ms Harris is back to her old self next time.