altheaann

Charlaine Harris has a very charming writing style, but based on ‘Grave Surprise,’ I don’t like this quite as much as her Sookie Stackhouse books. While Sookie’s world is unmistakably supernatural, here, heroine Harper Connelly is more in the realm of daytime talk shows for the gullible. Harper, a woman in her early 20’s, gained psychic powers when she was struck by lightning. Now, she can mystically find dead bodies – and if she touches those bodies, she can tell how they died. This allows her to make a good living – but now, it seems that someone more than the usual crew of debunkers is out to get her – someone has buried the body of a dead girl she was hired (and failed) to find in a shallow grave at a historical burial site. Who knew that Harper would be at that site to give a demonstration? And what is the motive behind the crime?

While the premise is rather silly, the story moves along at a good clip, with plenty of twists. I wasn’t enamored of Harper’s giant crush on her stepbrother (ick), but overall it was a fun light read.