Grave Secret

Amazon preorder,Amazon received ( )

This whole series was actually quite disturbing! Incestuous relationships made it difficult to read! ( )

6/14 - Reading the first two chapters of the Grave Sight graphic novel sent me back to read books 3 & 4. Love Harper andTolliver, and love them together! ( )

I'm sorry to see this series end, really I am. I kept marveling, as I read GRAVE SECRET, at how vivid and distinct Harper Connelly's narrative voice is - Charlaine Harris can somehow pack a world of personality into a single, clipped sentence. Harper is an interesting head to get inside of - so fiercely contained on the outside, on the inside she's a simmering pot of cynical insight, deep feeling, and determination.

As the probably-last book in the series, there's a lot of payoff here. Harper and Tolliver are back in Texas, where they grew up, and back in touch with their family. They visit their two little sisters, who were adopted by sour but solid Iona and Hank. They spend some time with Tolliver's older brother Mark, a boring, dependable sort who's working as a manager at a local JCPenny's. Usually Harper and Tolliver are glad to see Mark, but that's changed now that he's playing host to his - and Tolliver's - father, Matthew Lang. Matthew is a bad man, a bad parent, a drug-dealer and former addict. Matthew is fresh out of prison and while he approaches his children asking for forgiveness, he doesn't much want to earn it.

All these visits re-open old wounds, caused by Harper and Tolliver's horrible childhood and by Cameron's disappearance. At first Harper is just sifting through her memories of the day that Cameron disappeared, leading the reader through the known facts hour by hour. But eventually Harper has a breakthrough, thanks in part to a job looking at the grave of a wealthy Texas rancher and oil baron, Rich Joyce. She finds some things that upset the Joyce family, like the existence of a baby that may or may not be the issue of Rich Joyce, and may or may not be due a sizable inheritance. From the start, Harper suspected that she'd met the Joyces before - at least a couple of them - but it takes her a while to figure out when and where. It's not a pleasant recollection.

I agree with other reviewers who have commented that GRAVE SECRET, or at least the conclusion, feels a little rushed. Charlaine Harris is a wonderful, atmospheric writer and for most of the book we get a minute by minute account of Harper's life and work, everything from minutes spent in front of the mirror applying mascara to time spent hiding in terror behind a car while a murderer paces by, hunting his quarry. It's all so vivid and gritty and real. Then, towards the end, a whole lot of things happen all at once, all the mysteries are wrapped up, and bang, it's over. We get bare-bones answers, but not enough satisfying details. We get summaries instead of scenes, wrap-ups instead of crucial moments with Harper and Tolliver. I wish there had been another chapter or two, fleshing out the conclusion.

I'll miss Harper Connelly, but we're leaving her in a good place. ( )

I'm left wondering if this series is going to continue. The big mystery (that of Harper's sister disappearing) is wrapped up here and combining that finality with the last chapter (telling us how everybody ends up) I'm not sure where this could go. I can see the issues the author might have with the series--the three preceding books were all in the same vein. Harper and her brother discover a body/discover a secret, they're kept in town/attacked/disbelieved, they uncover the murderer/truth, then leave town completely vindicated. I would have been fine with the mystery of her sister's death never being solved, so this wrap up seems like a goodbye to the characters and an end overall. I hope I'm wrong, but with the Sookie Stackhouse series doing so well (True Blood) I can see how other books may not get as much attention in the future so it's better to come to an end now. ( )