Grave Sight

Grave Sight (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 1)

I recently reread Grave Sight and thought that I would include a review for it on our blog. In fact, I’ve read all of the books in this series-the Harper Connelly series-before, and I’ve enjoyed all of them.

First off, Charlaine Harris is by far, one of my favorite authors. She has such a knack for writing flawed and interesting characters and if I were a writer myself, if there was one author that I would want to emulate in terms of character development, it would be her. I like that her characters have emotional baggage and they’re not perfect Ken and Barbie dolls (unless they’re vampires or werewolves). But even then, they’re flawed, yet it’s not in an over-the-top melodramatic way. Granted there were some annoyances and I had some gripes, but overall, I liked the Sookie Stackhouse series a lot. I particularly liked the unique cast of characters in the Sookie Stackhouse series. And with this series, I liked the two main characters and I liked how the book was scaled down in terms of overlapping characters from book to book. Truthfully, it didn’t need a huge reoccurring cast.

In this book, you have Harper Connelly, who like Sookie, has an extra-sensory ability; hers is that she’s able to “find” dead bodies and sense how they died. The difference here is that these books are firmly grounded in the real world, as opposed to one shared with all manner of paranormal creature. How did she get this unusual talent? She was struck by lightning as she was curling her hair (sounds like she has my kind of luck;). Using her talent to their monetary advantage, she and her stepbrother Tolliver, have started this business where Harper hires herself out to find someone’s loved one or determine how someone’s loved one really died.

This story really works because you have a good balance here between the two protagonists, who are polar opposites. On one hand, Harper is a tad of a nervous bird and a bit high-strung, but Tolliver looks out for her and he grounds her, as he’s very rational and level-headed. He’s a touch laid-back, too; a cool bird to her nervous one. I don’t want to say much more about the dynamics of their relationship, but I will say that I have a soft spot for Tolliver and it got softer as the series went on. Furthermore, he’s not your traditional, run-of-the-mill hero (i.e., one nights are very commonplace).

This book is classified as a mystery-and what a mystery it is; with plenty of action and twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. If you’re already a fan of her Lily Bard series, give this one a try, because you might like it. Albeit, it’s a little lighter than that series, it does have a little more of that dry wit, that Harris is known for.

 Grave Sight – 4 stars out of 5!

Reviewed by Susannah B;)

Sorry, no playlist with this one.