Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

Grave Sight (Harper Connelly, #1)

by Charlaine Harris

Harper Connelly had a lucky escape when she was hit by lightning: she didn't die. But sometimes she wishes she had died, because the lightning strike left her with an unusual talent: she can find dead people - and that's not always comfortable. Everyone wants to know how she does it: it's a little like hearing a bee droning inside her head, or maybe the pop of a Geiger counter, a persistent, irregular noise that increases in strength as she gets closer. It's almost electric: a buzzing all through her body, and the fresher the corpse, the more intense the buzz. Harper and her brother Tolliver make their living from finding the dead, for desperate parents, worried friends ...and police departments who have nowhere else to look. They may not believe in her abilities, but sometimes the proof is just too much for even the most sceptical of police chiefs to deny. But it's not always easy for someone like Harper, for the dead *want* to be found - and too often, finding the body doesn't bring closure; it opens a whole new can of worms.

Reviewed by celinenyx on

4 of 5 stars

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Instead of the full-on supernatural romp of the Sookie Stackhouse books, the Harper Connelly ones are more rooted in reality. They feature heroine Harper that has been struck by lightning when she was young. Together with her stepbrother Tolliver she travels the country to help people: by finding dead bodies.

Grave Sight was a short but entertaining intro in a different series by Charlaine Harris. It has a touch of the paranormal with the heroine, but otherwise features the normal world. It is more paranormal mystery than anything, and readers should be aware that Grave Sight doesn't nearly has the scope or feel of the Sookie Stackhouse books.

When I first started reading I kind of missed the town of Bon Temps with its quirky inhabitants and Sookie's homeliness. Within a dozen pages though Ms Harris's simple language wrapped me up like in a warm blanket, and I got invested in Harper's story.

Ms Harris is only an average mystery writer in my opinion; it's not as if the killer is that obvious, but the experienced reader will figure it out before the end. The clues aren't that cleverly hidden, and the resolution could have had more impact. What made Grave Sight a four-star read instead of the average three-star one is the way this book just made me happy. When I'm in a particularly stressed or feel down, I'll pick up one of Harris's books and I'll get wrapped up in the utter normalcy of these people. They get dressed, watch TV, read books, have pointless conversations... For some reason the realness of their lives makes for cosier reading. As a reader you can either have my reaction to this normalcy, or you will find it incredibly dull and repetitive. I happen to find it really calming.

Though not in the same calibre as the mid-early Sookie books, I got everything I was looking for from Grave Sight.

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  • Started reading
  • 6 January, 2014: Finished reading
  • 6 January, 2014: Reviewed