GRAVE SIGHT

TITLE: GRAVE SIGHT

AUTHOR: CHARLAINE HARRIS

Audio: 7 CD’s / 8 Hours /

           Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan

Date: 17/02/2012

Grade: 4-

Details: no. 1 Harper Connelly

Library

Ever since Harper Connelly was hit by lightning she has a special gift. She is able to locate dead people and tell how they died. She can tell the cause of death and whether or not it was natural, although she can’t see who caused a death in case of murders.

Using her gift to make a living, Harper travels with her step-brother Tolliver, from place to place. She gets in, finds the body, cashes the check and then gets out again. Because although people do want their dead found, they are not comfortable with what she can do and often don’t like what she discovers.

When Harper and Tolliver arrive in a small town they have been hired to find the body of a missing teenage girl, which Harper does without much difficulty. But when she determines that the girl has been murdered, and subsequently uncovers that other people didn’t exactly die in the way people had thought, things get tense. And it isn’t long before Tolliver and Harper find themselves under threat from all sides. And although it is not in their job description and all they really want to do is drive on to the next job, they have to discover what has been going on in town before they can safely move on.

I enjoyed this story. I liked the idea of someone being able to find dead people and revealing the cause of their death. I also enjoyed the mystery which was written in such a way that the reader had as good a chance of discovering the truth as Harper had.

I wasn’t too impressed with Harper and Tolliver though. Harper especially didn’t ring quite true for me. She is complete mess once separated from Tolliver yet very capable of defending herself while under attack. She feels scared and helpless without her brother, yet that doesn’t stop her from putting herself in dangerous situations. As a character she didn’t make a lot of sense and her frequent whining didn’t make her a very sympathetic character either.

Tolliver didn’t quite get off the page for me. I couldn’t get a real feel for him but what I did get didn’t make me like him very much.

Harper and Tolliver come with a heavy and depressing back story, and although I can see how that may provide the basics for future stories, it did feel a bit like overload to me.

Overall I enjoyed listening to this book but I can’t see myself rushing out to get my hands on any sequels. When it comes to Charlaine Harris, I think I prefer the Sookie Stackhouse stories.