Richard M. (algernon99) - , reviewed on 1/4/2007 + 418 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 5

What an interesting story! Harper Connelly, after being hit by lightning as a teenager, has the ability, when in the physical presence of a dead body, to communicate with it and see the cause of death. Usually she can also sense the name. She can "feel" the presence of bodies and is called in when they know generally where a body might be. She can usually find it. She can walk through a graveyard, pause at each grave, and recite the cause of death and the name of the person there interred. Amazing stuff.

What makes the book so interesting to me is that as we go along with the character, the ability is not amazing or fantastic or anything like that--it's just a workaday, normal reality for her. She goes from job to job--people hire her to either find bodies or determine causes of death--just doing what she knows how to do. It takes a talented author to sell such a thing, to make it believable and normal, which Charlaine Harris certainly does.

Of course, there are complications in some cases, and this book is about one such. Things don't add up as she finds bodies and causes of death, which are not what the local authorities and the people who hired expected.

I can't wait for the next book in the series. I like Harris' Sookie Stackhouse vampire series, too, but this isn't just frivolous frippery like those books. There is meat here.

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