BOOK REVIEW: Grave Surprise (Harper Connelly #2) by Charlaine Harris

Grave Surprise is the second book in the Harper Connelly series written by Charlaine Harris. It was published on September 26th, 2006 by Berkley Hardcover its ISBN for lookup is 0425212033. I purchased this book.

WHY I BOUGHT IT

I have been making my way through the Charlaine Harris’ back catalogue after True Blood finished up. I started with Aurora Teagarden and really loved the series so this was the logical next step.

WHAT I THOUGHT

This book started slow, I mean really slow something that is a symptom of being first in the series and often suffered by books that have huge stories to build like your epic fantasies and Sci-Fi. However this book is set in the Southern States in a world pretty similar to our own so I wondered why it dragged in the beginning.

Keep going though and you are rewarded with an interesting story about a couple of damaged people who have formed an incredibly strong bond. The supernatural element (or is it) is just an incredibly unique premise for a murder mystery series. Harper herself is very clear that she is not a psychic or clairvoyant.

She is also a member of a very unique group – people who have survived a lightning strike. You learn a lot about the phenomenon in the series like for instance that there is pretty much no walking away from a direct lightning strike and that survivors generally are hit after the initial strike. The rest of the things I will leave you to learn as you read or you could do hit Google.

Once the mystery got going the book became markedly easier to read. You can see the Charlaine Harris style in this book just like I enjoyed in Aurora Teagarden and Sookie Stackhouse. I best describe it talking about all the little things that a lot of books miss out and a lot of social interaction. The style makes you feel like you’re really involved in things rather than just watching on from a distance it makes a lot of difference.

This isn’t a lot like Sookie Stackhouse which is an adult mystery paranormal mystery it is probably closer to the Aurora Teagarden series though it is definitely a little darker in tone. I think as I work my way through the series I will see more similarities that line up with the themes in Harris’ work, small Southern communities with lots of secrets.

If you like murder mysteries check this out the twist of the Harper’s unique abilities makes things even more interesting. If you’re a fan of the way Charlaine Harris writes then I think you’ll be engrossed by this book too.