Wednesday, June 1, 2016

REVIEW: Grave Surprise

Grave Surprise
Author: Charlaine Harris

Grave Surprise is the 2nd of 4 books in the Harper Connelly series.

Harper Connelly was struck by lightning when she was a teenager. She survived, but ever since then she can find dead bodies. She travels with her brother Tolliver all over the United States to help find bodies of missing persons and murder victims. She is often the victim of ridicule and threats because of her "talent,'' and often she is made to feel like a con artist for charging money for her services.

In this 2nd novel, Harper and Tolliver have been called to Memphis to give a demonstration at a cemetery for a local college. Anthropology Professor, Dr. Clyde Nunley, teaches the class, "An Open Mind: Experiences Outside the Box'' but the Professor is still surprised when Harper's talent proves to be genuine. That's not the only surprise, however. Harper discovers that a 100-year old grave in the cemetery is hiding a newer, second body, a girl missing for 18 months.

Who killed the girl? Why was she buried inside a grave in the cemetery?  Once again Harper and Tolliver are pulled into a murder investigation, and police are starting to suspect maybe they had something to do with it.

In my review of book 1 Grave Sight, I commented that the relationship between Harper and her brother seems a bit....odd.  Too physical. Too emotional.  And this book did nothing to relieve my anxiety.  While it is true that they are just step-siblings.....it is still creepy that they seem to have a weird, inappropriate dependency on each other. No spoilers....but something was revealed in this book that pretty much moved those feelings from anxiety to full-on creepy-uggo-icky.

But, the ickiness is not bad enough for me to stop reading the books. I enjoy the series, even if the relationship between the two main characters is a bit disconcerting at times.

I do wish that Harper were a bit less of an anxiety-ridden, whiney, wack-a-doo sometimes though. But, I suppose if I was struck by lightning and found dead bodies for a living I would be a bit strange, too.

I am definitely going to read the final two books in this series. In fact, I have just added book 3 to my "currently reading'' list. But, if Harper has sex with her brother......I am closing the book,  washing my eyeballs, and giving it a DNF at that point. Uggo.

The cover art for this book was awesome! :)

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