Review: Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris
Title: Grave Sight
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Harper Connelly #1
Rating: 4 Stars
293 pages
Published 2007 by Gollancz
Gifted to me by my boyfriend
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.
Harper Connolly is honest, ethical and loyal – and ever since a bolt of lightening zapped her on the head, she’s had an extra-special talent: she can find dead people. It’s not a common-or-garden job. Some people find Harper’s talent useful and fascinating, but she’s getting used to most people treating her like a blood-sucking leech. She’s become an expert at getting in, getting paid and getting out, fast.
When Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver, travel to the Ozarks to find a local teenager, missing, believed dead, they discover that someone is willing to go to great lengths to bury a secret.
Before long Tolliver’s locked away on trumped-up charges and Harper’s fighting for her own life…
- Review: Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong (4 Stars)
- Review: The Language of Dying by Sarah Pinborough (3.5 Stars)
- Graphic Novel Review: Cemetery Girl #1: The Pretenders by Charlaine Harris & Christopher Golden (4 Stars)
- Review: Captured by the Highlanders by Julianne McLean (2 Stars)
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