An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly, #3)

by Charlaine Harris

Harper Connelly was struck by lightning as a teenager, and now she can find the dead.

In her third case, Harper and Tolliver, her stepbrother, are hired to find a missing grandson. But the truth is far worse than a single dead child, for numerous teenage boys, all unlikely runaways, have disappeared from Doraville, North Carolina.

Harper soon finds the eight bodies, buried in the half-frozen ground, but then, still reeling from coming into contact with her first serial killer, she is attacked and injured. Now she and Tolliver have no choice but to stay in Doraville while she recovers, and as she reluctantly becomes part of the investigation, she learns more than she cares to about the dark mysteries and long-hidden secrets of the town: knowledge that makes her the most likely person to be next to end up in an ice-cold grave.

• ISBN10: 0575083999
• ISBN13: 9780575083998
• Publish Date: 9 October 2008 (first published 1 September 2007)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Format: Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

If Grave Surprise was my least favorite, An Ice Cold Grave had to be my next favorite installment. Not only did it take place in my home state of North Carolina, but it scared me silly. An Ice Cold Grave had the most intense mystery and setting of the entire series: An ice storm in the mountains with a serial killer targeting children. {shiver}

I don’t know if I wouldn’t necessarily call this horror, but it was definitely spooky.

To offset some of the intensity, Harris granted a larger role for the Bernardo’s. Manfred Bernardo was already familiar to me as the main character in the Midnight, Texas series, which is set after this series ends. I unknowingly read that series before this one, but it did not impact my understanding of either. Actually, I was delighted by the crossover. I guess you could technically consider the Midnight, Texas series to be a spin off of this one. It was great fun meeting Zilda. She is referenced in the Midnight, Texas series, but does not appear in it. I learned a lot more about her background and zany personality in An Ice Cold Grave and also met her daughter, Manfred’s mother. The Bernardo family is so fun, I’m glad Manfred got his own series.

[celinenyx]

Well, that was awkward. Beware of spoilers below.

I totally thought I was okay with Tolliver and Harper hooking up, but dayum, that scene was fifty shades of awkward. It's just way too icky to talk about your brother's penis, even when he's not really your brother. Ew ew ew. Really hope there won't be any sex scenes in the last book of the series.

The mystery was pretty fun, I guessed half of it. The other part was still a surprise, so yay for that.

[inlibrisveritas]

I find myself somewhat loosing interest in this series, but since I think there is only one more I'll probably read it at some point. The storyline is still solid and the mysteries are good (even though a little brutal) but it's the same as the last two. Harper is a depressing creature and every sense of the word, she has her good moments but then it's all gloom from there on out. Tolliver is moody and doesn't contribute much to the main story. The relationship between the two is odd, I know in my last review I was interesting in how it turns out but I suppose I didn't think it would be as weird as it turned out. Once i started thinking about it it really bothered me. I suppose if they had never considered each other as a close family member it would be better, but you go through the first book hearing about how much of a brother Tolliver is to her and blah blah blah. So by the time you get to this book the fact that they now are in a relationship is just weird. You just don't stop seeing a person as a brother that quickly, but apparently she does. Enough that the topic of sex crops up soon after this revelation...I mean about a sentence after. The sex scene is probably what made it so creepy to begin with, I could of handle gradual but not the immediate dirty talk and such. Over all that's what brought this way down for me, that and the depressing repetitiveness.

[Linda]

Not going to be among my fave series for sure. Some things are downright making me queasy!

[ibeforem]

I find Harper and Tolliver to be rather interesting protagonists — two people just trying to make a living from an unusual gift and keep to themselves, but who keep getting pulled into other people’s affairs. In this case, the discovery of a serial killer, an attack on Harper, and several other events all conspire to keep the two in Doraville much longer than they’d like. I’ve decided that this has been my favorite book of the three, maybe because we actually get a taste of a happy Harper in this one. Granted, her happiness comes from a realization of shared feelings between herself and her “brother”, but I had been told to expect it. I was afraid I might feel icky about their relationship, which appears incestuous from the outside, but by the time the book got to it I was prepared. Harper had already stopped thinking about him as her brother, so as a reader, I did too. I’m sad that this series hasn’t been continued yet, because I’m really interested to see how things continue for Harper and Tolliver.

This is the first book in the series I listened to instead of read, so I wonder if the audio production is what made me enjoy it more? That is an interesting rumination for another time.

[wyvernfriend]

Interesting story about Harper and her ability to find dead bodies. She's brought to find a dead boy and finds herself finding several, when she's attacked she finds herself having to stay and helping with the murder mystery.

Interesting but sometimes it dragged a bit.