Grave Sight (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 1)

Charlaine Harris is a gifted writer, plain and simple. Her Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels have kept me well entertained, while my wife enjoys Harris's more straightforward mysteries. Now, this talented imagination has conjured up a new kind of heroine who straddles the line between mystery and contemporary fantasy: Harper Connelly.

Harper is no action hero. She's not a brilliant detective or slayer of evil. She has no supernatural origins, nor does she have a relationship with any kind of undead creature. No, Harper's world is largely mundane, with one major difference. Ever since she was struck by lightning, she's been afraid of thunderstorms, she is weak in one leg ... and she can sense the location and final moments of the dead. That makes her a valuable commodity to those seeking answers, closure for a loss or the location of a missing (presumed dead) loved one. It also makes her somewhat unclean in the eyes of many, a ghoul who makes her living off the dead and, quite often, supplies answers no one is eager to hear. Still, she travels with her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, and does what good she can -- for a profit -- without getting too involved in the lives (or deaths) of those she encounters.

But then she and Tolliver roll into Sarne, a small town in the Arkansas Ozarks with a few big secrets. The job seems easy at first, just find a missing teenage girl. But answers to one disappearance lead to further questions about other deaths, and soon the siblings are wrapped up in a criminal case that could cost Harper her professional reputation -- or even her life.

Harper is a darker protagonist than Sookie, and the tone of the book is more serious; there is humor, but it's painted with a much lighter brush. Also, while Harper's "power" is certainly fantastic, the novel otherwise is entirely grounded in reality. The characters, major and minor, seem so damn real, it's hard to believe they were just invented for this book.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(n e t) editor

I read this because I like the Southern Vampire Series. This is totally different. The characters are unique. The feel of the book is more serious. But different is good and I enjoyed it. The characters are well created but with room for development. The concept of being able to see how people died is believably presented yet leaves enough unknown so that plots can develop. I'm looking forward to reading the next.

OK- I gave this new series by Harris a chance as I LOVE her Sookie Stackhouse series and I was surprised to really like Harper. I don't read mysteries - I'm into Sookie for the Vamps, YUM! - but Harper has depth and dark soul that appeal to me. Well written, I'll be sure to read the rest of Harper's books.

This is a paranormal mystery.

The sleuths are a "brother sister" pair - she can talk to the dead, he protects her from the world.

Once again, Harris brings us a real-life heroine, despite her gift/handicap. She's strong in some ways, but horribly flawed in others. She runs to keep herself fit, yet is scared of thunderstorms. She reads all the time, but hasn't a memory for jeopardy details. She's a woman you might know, but of course, you don't.

Ms. Harris tells the story of Harper and Tolliver with the same gift she brings to all of her books. They are live, gritty people in a live, gritty world. They find humor in the strangest places, much as anyone would.

The lower rating is for the story itself. I found the criminals frustrating, the story itself was almost disturbing (not in an "Along Came A Spider" kind of way) in the offhand manner in which people killed others. The basic plot loses that grip of gritty realism that often lies just below the fantasy of Ms. Harris's stories.

This was not as entertaining as Sookie, and not as riveting as the Shakespeare opener, but is a good read anyway! If only it didn't basically say at the end... read the next book (I always subtract a star from my ratins for obvious sequel plugs).

(*)>

I love Charlaine Harris so this was a no-brainer. She is great and so are her stories. Keep them coming!