Richard M. (algernon99) -
Helpful Score: 12
I was so far down on the wish list for this book that I decided I'd just have to buy a copy--you know, pay actual money to read it. What a concept! (Luckily I had a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com.)
So I bought it and read it the day after it arrived, since I didn't get to open the mail until after 10 pm that night. It reads quickly and is a lot of fun. Not funny, but entertaining in a thoughtful sort of way.
First, read #1 in the series. You absolutely must, before you tackle this one.
The thing that makes Charlaine Harris books so interesting and so believable is that she just adds one little fantasy element and then makes sure the rest of the story follows logically and inevitably from that one surreal premise. As we follow Harper Connelly around as she "reads" graves to discern who the occupant is how and how the unfortunate corpse died, everything seems normal. The woo-woo element is workaday routine rather than something to be held up and wondered at. I like that.
This story proceeds logically to its end. There was one side plot element introduced near the end that disturbed both me and my wife (she read the book the day after I did), but it is certainly a fair complication to enter the ongoing series story line. We just don't like it!
Anyway, if you can wait through the wish list, give this one a read. It's quite enjoyable.
And, yes, we put our copy into the mail to another PBSer on the third day after it arrived.
So I bought it and read it the day after it arrived, since I didn't get to open the mail until after 10 pm that night. It reads quickly and is a lot of fun. Not funny, but entertaining in a thoughtful sort of way.
First, read #1 in the series. You absolutely must, before you tackle this one.
The thing that makes Charlaine Harris books so interesting and so believable is that she just adds one little fantasy element and then makes sure the rest of the story follows logically and inevitably from that one surreal premise. As we follow Harper Connelly around as she "reads" graves to discern who the occupant is how and how the unfortunate corpse died, everything seems normal. The woo-woo element is workaday routine rather than something to be held up and wondered at. I like that.
This story proceeds logically to its end. There was one side plot element introduced near the end that disturbed both me and my wife (she read the book the day after I did), but it is certainly a fair complication to enter the ongoing series story line. We just don't like it!
Anyway, if you can wait through the wish list, give this one a read. It's quite enjoyable.
And, yes, we put our copy into the mail to another PBSer on the third day after it arrived.
Helpful Score: 5
I ate this book up in a few days! Which was surprising because I'd been wondering why my reading pace had slowed down somewhat with my last few books. It's become obvious to me that I chew through the ones I really enjoy while the other stuff that's just okay kind of drags at a steadier pace. Hmmm....
Grave Surprise continues the story of Harper and Tolliver started in Grave Sight. Harper has an unusual talent for being able to find the dead, and discover their last living moments including how they died. She's often called upon by distressed parents or various law enforcement officials to help in missing persons cases, to see if a body can be located... for Harper can only find the dead, not the living.
Harper and Tolliver are called to Memphis by anthropology professor Dr. Clyde Nunley to "read" a graveyard, the records for which were only recently discovered. Little do they realize that Dr. Nunley is hoping to expose Harper as a fraud since no one else has had access to these records besides himself. But the entire class gets more than they bargained for when, besides being spot on for each person buried in the centuries-old cemetery, Harper discovers the body of 11-year-old Tabitha Morganstern, abducted from Nashville 2 years prior, in one of the existing grave sites. Harper had been called in on Tabitha's case back then but had failed to produce results when she couldn't locate the body. So her and Tolliver begin to wonder if this is too much of a coincidence and that perhaps they were set up to find this body. Unfortunately, the police and FBI aren't too pleased with the coincidences either...
The action keeps going nonstop right up until the very end. I anxiously await the next book in the wonderful new Harper Connelly series by Charlaine Harris.
Grave Surprise continues the story of Harper and Tolliver started in Grave Sight. Harper has an unusual talent for being able to find the dead, and discover their last living moments including how they died. She's often called upon by distressed parents or various law enforcement officials to help in missing persons cases, to see if a body can be located... for Harper can only find the dead, not the living.
Harper and Tolliver are called to Memphis by anthropology professor Dr. Clyde Nunley to "read" a graveyard, the records for which were only recently discovered. Little do they realize that Dr. Nunley is hoping to expose Harper as a fraud since no one else has had access to these records besides himself. But the entire class gets more than they bargained for when, besides being spot on for each person buried in the centuries-old cemetery, Harper discovers the body of 11-year-old Tabitha Morganstern, abducted from Nashville 2 years prior, in one of the existing grave sites. Harper had been called in on Tabitha's case back then but had failed to produce results when she couldn't locate the body. So her and Tolliver begin to wonder if this is too much of a coincidence and that perhaps they were set up to find this body. Unfortunately, the police and FBI aren't too pleased with the coincidences either...
The action keeps going nonstop right up until the very end. I anxiously await the next book in the wonderful new Harper Connelly series by Charlaine Harris.
Helpful Score: 3
This is the second book in another great series by Harris, this one a little darker with a little less humor but no less a read than the Sookie Stackhouse books. This series is about A woman who sees the dead's last moments on earth when near their bodies, obviously this leads to a valuable mystery solving tool....and Danger;-)
Richard M. (algernon99) -
Helpful Score: 2
I was so far down on the wish list for this book that I decided I'd just have to buy a copy--you know, pay actual money to read it. What a concept! (Luckily I had a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com.)
So I bought it and read it the day after it arrived, since I didn't get to open the mail until after 10 pm that night. It reads quickly and is a lot of fun. Not funny, but entertaining in a thoughtful sort of way.
First, read #1 in the series. You absolutely must, before you tackle this one.
The thing that makes Charlaine Harris books so interesting and so believable is that she just adds one little fantasy element and then makes sure the rest of the story follows logically and inevitably from that one surreal premise. As we follow Harper Connelly around as she "reads" graves to discern who the occupant is how and how the unfortunate corpse died, everything seems normal. The woo-woo element is workaday routine rather than something to be held up and wondered at. I like that.
This story proceeds logically to its end. There was one side plot element introduced near the end that disturbed both me and my wife (she read the book the day after I did), but it is certainly a fair complication to enter the ongoing series story line. We just don't like it!
Anyway, if you can wait through the wish list, give this one a read. It's quite enjoyable.
And, yes, we put our copy into the mail to another PBSer on the third day after it arrived.
So I bought it and read it the day after it arrived, since I didn't get to open the mail until after 10 pm that night. It reads quickly and is a lot of fun. Not funny, but entertaining in a thoughtful sort of way.
First, read #1 in the series. You absolutely must, before you tackle this one.
The thing that makes Charlaine Harris books so interesting and so believable is that she just adds one little fantasy element and then makes sure the rest of the story follows logically and inevitably from that one surreal premise. As we follow Harper Connelly around as she "reads" graves to discern who the occupant is how and how the unfortunate corpse died, everything seems normal. The woo-woo element is workaday routine rather than something to be held up and wondered at. I like that.
This story proceeds logically to its end. There was one side plot element introduced near the end that disturbed both me and my wife (she read the book the day after I did), but it is certainly a fair complication to enter the ongoing series story line. We just don't like it!
Anyway, if you can wait through the wish list, give this one a read. It's quite enjoyable.
And, yes, we put our copy into the mail to another PBSer on the third day after it arrived.
Helpful Score: 2
Definitely need to read "Grave Sight" first; this one doesn't stand on its own. Story developed nicely ... until the end. Read as though the author had stopped short, put away the manuscript, and returned close to the contract deadline to tack on a thrown-together ending.
