What a fun read. These are almost as wonderful as the sookie books. If you liked those, you'll love Harper and Tolliver. ( )

This is Book One of the Harper Connelly mystery series, by the author of the Sookie Stackhouse series.

Harper Connelly, aged 24, was struck by lightning when she was 15, and ever since then has been able to sense the location of dead people and also see how they died (but not who killed them). Consequently, she and her 27 year old stepbrother, Tolliver Lang (acting as manager and assistant), hire themselves out to help find missing persons. As Harper explains:

"The way I see it, I'm providing a service to the dead while bringing some closure to the living ... I couldn't do it alone - that's why my stepbrother Tolliver travels with me, as my manager and, sometimes, bodyguard. It's an unpredictable work schedule: we live out of hotels, ready to hit the road at any time. Because for the living it's always urgent - even if the dead can wait forever..."

In this book, Harper and Tolliver go to the small town of Sarne, Arkansas, to find a missing teenaged girl, lost about the same time as her boyfriend, whose body was found and deemed a suicide. The mother of the boy hires Harper so it won't seem as if she doesn't care about her son's wrong-side-of-the-tracks girlfriend. But the more answers Harper and Tolliver unearth [double entendre], the more they are subjected to murder threats themselves.

Evaluation: This is a pleasant enough mystery, though it lacks the energy and charm of the Sookie Stackhouse books. Still, the author has an unerring eye for people’s quirks, insecurities, and insincerities, as well as an insistence on the complexity of motivations by giving even evil characters their moments of kindness. ( )

Harper Connolly is not your average girl, she has a 'gift'. She can find the dead. She can't talk to them or see them, only find their bodies after their life has expired. Harper makes her living using the gift god, and a lighting bolt, gave her; and not everyone likes that.

Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver have entered the town of Sarne, or as Harper likes to think of it Hell, for nothing seems to go right from the moment they enter the town. It was supposed to be a simple job, a quick in and a quick out. Unfortunately someone has murder on the mind, and Harper and Tolliver have just been dragged along for the ride.

Even in small towns there are secrets, some more deadly then others and someone will stop at nothing to keep the truth, and a few bodies, buried. Harper's gift has unwittingly brought a whole lot trouble down on the residents of Sarne, and in turn trouble has hit Harper and Tolliver, hard. Harper has sworn that she will never again set foot in Sarne, if only she can live long enough to leave.

Charlaine Harris has created yet another strong, intriguing and unique heroin in Harper Connolly. Grave Surprise is a murder mystery with a twist; where the paranormal meets the everyday. Every character in this story has their own history and quirks making them substantial and instantly familiar. A murder mystery that is exciting, fast paced and full of surprises. ( )

Book 1 of the Harper Connelly mysteries. When Harper Connelly was struck by lightening she acquired the gift of locating dead bodies. She can find them and figure out how they died, but if foul play was involved she can't sense who did it. Harper capitalises on her gift by consulting for private individuals, and she's led to Sarne, Arkansas to find the body of two locals. What she discovers is that the bodies are just the tip of a mystery involving quite a few of the townfolk. Unfortunately, Harper is not nearly as intriguing a character as Sookie Stackhouse, there's no humour in this book as compared to the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries and Harper's relationship with her step-brother is slightly too intense and ended up making me a little uncomfortable. Just not my cup of tea. ( )

I'm probably only one of two people in the world who isn't a fan of the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I was definitely looking forward to reading Charlaine Harris's GRAVE SIGHT. I wasn't disappointed--I think this book is an excellent start to a new series.

Harper and her brother, Tolliver, are both interesting and well-developed characters with the requisite flaws to keep them entertaining. When Harper was a teen-ager, she was struck by lightning--and given an extraordinary gift in the form of the ability to find dead bodies, and relive their last moments of life (i.e. tell how they died). She travels around the country with her brother as her assistant/bodyguard/accountant, traveling to aid whoever has hired her to find the body of a loved one or determine if they met with foul play.

As they travel to the town of Sarne, the bodies start piling up, Harper and Tolliver are suddenly suspects in a murder, and the suspect list just keeps growing and growing. The outcome was definitely, at least to me, unexpected, and I thoroughly enjoyed this beginning of Ms. Harris's new series.

The only small problem I had with the book was it's verrrrry slow-moving pace. I felt like the whole book could have been told in about 100 less pages, but it might just be that I was feeling in a hurry.

Overall, GRAVE SIGHT was a dark, brooding, suspenseful read--just the kind I like! ( )