Grave Sight

August 22, 2005
Ever since Harper Connelly survived a zap from a lightning bolt, she's been able to find dead people, a skill that makes the protagonist in the first installment of Harris's new series a tad more bizarre than the mind-reading heroine of the author's Sookie Stackhouse books (Dead as a Doornail
, etc.). Harper travels to the Ozark town of Sarne, Ark., to find a missing teenage girl's body, accompanied by her stepbrother, Tolliver, who acts as her manager and bodyguard and with whom she shares a thinly disguised physical attraction that they manage to keep at bay by engaging in casual sex with various partners. Finding the body takes no time at all, but leaving town afterward isn't so easy. When Harper's life is threatened and Tolliver ends up in jail on trumped-up charges, it quickly becomes apparent that something sinister is going on in Sarne. Harris delivers a knuckle-gnawing tale populated with well-developed, albeit edgy characters. A nifty puzzle toward the end will challenge the most jaded mystery buffs. Agent, Joshua Bilmes at Jabberwocky
.

October 1, 2005
Prolific author Harris debuts a series that just might surpass all her others in popularity. Harper Connolly is honest, ethical, loyal, and, in many people's eyes, quite odd. Since being hit by lightning, Harper has a strange gift: she can find dead people and reveal how they died. Harper is so down-to-earth and delivers the story in such a straightforward way that even the most hardened realist eventually will accept the premise. In this first outing, Harper and her manager and stepbrother Tolliver travel to a small town in Arkansas to determine what happened to a local teenager. Once there, they learn that someone is willing go to great lengths--even murder--to bury a secret. While absorbing the usual mixture of awe, revulsion, and fear that her "gift" inspires in the locals, Harper tries to uncover the secret they are trying desperately to hide. Future stories may shed more light on Harper and Tolliver's relationship, which seems curiously close for a sister and stepbrother. A strong debut that will have readers dying for more.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)