Grave Surprise

by Charlaine Harris

$23.95, Berkley Prime Crime, 295 pp

We know Charlaine from her Sookie Stackhouse stories and while it’s true that this is a perfectly splendid murder mystery, it is also true that our protagonist is not a perfectly ordinary woman. So, it may be a stretch to include this in our book reviews but I’m willing to do it.

Harper Connelly was hit by lightning and survived to discover that she can now find dead people. So, like any reasonable person, she uses this ability to make a living. Her stepbrother, Tolliver, is her manager and they share a common dysfunctional family history. But when they took a job that was obviously intended to ‘debunk’ Harper, they never expected to find the lost body of a little girl they had been hired to find some years earlier – and failed to do so. A most confusing trail – the body hadn’t been there the whole two years, she had been recently buried in the turn-of-the-century church graveyard. And this was another city entirely from where she’d been abducted. In fact, her parents had recently moved to this city – how suspicious was that? Her parents appeared to be devoted to each other. And her step-brother, who had been a prime suspect two years earlier, seemed to be quite genuine in his grief and affection for her. She had loving grandparents and uncles and aunts….all very sincere and desperate for closure. And they all looked to Harper for that closure. But although Harper could tell them what the last few seconds of life were to poor little Tabitha, she wasn’t able to say who did it.

But somebody must think she can because she’s being setup for additional murders. The family has lots of secrets and while all Harper really desires is peace for Tabitha, she gets more of those secrets that she cares for…until she gets the one secret that may mean the end of her brother’s life. And on top of all that, Harper herself has a secret; one that she’d rather keep and ruin her own life than allow her brother to know.

This is the second in Charlaine’s new series and just as good and satisfying as the first. A very competent murder mystery with well-drawn characters and motivations. I couldn’t put it down once I started closing in on the end. - Catherine Book