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Psychic sleuth Harper Connelly travels to Memphis and ends up involved in a case of murder times three in this mystery from #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris.At the request of anthropology professor Clyde Nunley, Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver come to Memphis, Tennessee, to demonstrate her unique talent—in an old cemetery. Nunley is skeptical, even after Harper senses—and finds—two bodies in the grave beneath her feet. One of a man centuries-dead. The other, show more a young girl, recently deceased, whom Harper had once tried, and failed, to locate. But Harper’s new investigation into the crime yields yet another surprise: the next morning, a third body is found—in the very same grave... show less
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That the Harper Connelly books are not what they seem becomes apparent in this, the second book in the series.
Like the first book, this one is focused around the consequences of Harper using her strange gift for finding the dead and knowing how they died. The plot is complex enough to be satisfying and plausible enough not to be irritating but you soon realise that the purpose of the book is to understand more about Harper and her relationships to her family.
During the book, I was curious to find out who the bad guy was but the real fascination was in learning more about Harper’s background and her relationship with the men in her life, especially her “brother” and the pierced and tattooed young psychic.
Harper is both fragile and show more strong. The two parts of her are bound together by her bravery and her need to find the truth.
Harris succeeds in getting the reader to see the world through Harper’s eyes and to sympathise with that point of view. All the little details are right and the pace is well-managed.
I would have been happier with a little less need to recap the first book in the second but this did not mar my enjoyment of the book as a whole show less
Like the first book, this one is focused around the consequences of Harper using her strange gift for finding the dead and knowing how they died. The plot is complex enough to be satisfying and plausible enough not to be irritating but you soon realise that the purpose of the book is to understand more about Harper and her relationships to her family.
During the book, I was curious to find out who the bad guy was but the real fascination was in learning more about Harper’s background and her relationship with the men in her life, especially her “brother” and the pierced and tattooed young psychic.
Harper is both fragile and show more strong. The two parts of her are bound together by her bravery and her need to find the truth.
Harris succeeds in getting the reader to see the world through Harper’s eyes and to sympathise with that point of view. All the little details are right and the pace is well-managed.
I would have been happier with a little less need to recap the first book in the second but this did not mar my enjoyment of the book as a whole show less
That the Harper Connelly books are not what they seem becomes apparent in this, the second book in the series.
Like the first book, this one is focused around the consequences of Harper using her strange gift for finding the dead and knowing how they died. The plot is complex enough to be satisfying and plausible enough not to be irritating but you soon realise that the purpose of the book is to understand more about Harper and her relationships to her family.
During the book, I was curious to find out who the bad guy was but the real fascination was in learning more about Harper’s background and her relationship with the men in her life, especially her “brother” and the pierced and tattooed young psychic.
Harper is both fragile and show more strong. The two parts of her are bound together by her bravery and her need to find the truth.
Harris succeeds in getting the reader to see the world through Harper’s eyes and to sympathise with that point of view. All the little details are right and the pace is well-managed.
I would have been happier with a little less need to recap the first book in the second but this did not mar my enjoyment of the book as a whole. show less
Like the first book, this one is focused around the consequences of Harper using her strange gift for finding the dead and knowing how they died. The plot is complex enough to be satisfying and plausible enough not to be irritating but you soon realise that the purpose of the book is to understand more about Harper and her relationships to her family.
During the book, I was curious to find out who the bad guy was but the real fascination was in learning more about Harper’s background and her relationship with the men in her life, especially her “brother” and the pierced and tattooed young psychic.
Harper is both fragile and show more strong. The two parts of her are bound together by her bravery and her need to find the truth.
Harris succeeds in getting the reader to see the world through Harper’s eyes and to sympathise with that point of view. All the little details are right and the pace is well-managed.
I would have been happier with a little less need to recap the first book in the second but this did not mar my enjoyment of the book as a whole. show less
Psychic sleuth Harper Connelly travels to Memphis and ends up involved in a case of three murders in this mystery. At the request of anthropology professor Clyde Nunley, Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver, come to Memphis, Tennessee, to demonstrate her unique talent, in an old cemetery. Nunley is skeptical, even after Harper senses and finds, two bodies in the grave beneath her feet. One of a man dead for centuries...the other, a young girl, recently deceased, whom Harper had once tried, and failed, to locate. But Harper’s new investigation into the crime yields yet another surprise: the next morning, a third body is found...in the very same grave.
Harper has a terrible childhood. Her mother and stepfather are alcoholics and drug show more addicts. Her sister is kidnapped and never found. Her family is split apart and she is terribly traumatized. Oh, and she can find the dead. She can "feel" them, know the cause of their death, and see the last few seconds of their life.
I really like supernatural, paranormal, ghostly books, so the supernatural aspect of this series...which I had read some of years ago...and Harper's physic ability to connect with the dead was a big draw to get in one more book in April. The dead always want to be heard; but as Harper tells the living, "You may not always like what you hear".
Harper is brought to Memphis, Tennessee to a graveyard. A college professor wants to test her physic abilities for his class. He believes that she is a fraud, but he soon finds that she is exactly what she claims to be....and she proves this when she finds a body...a body that should NOT be there. Harper has looked for this girl before...and now she's found her.
What follows is a great mystery...but that's what Haper "feeds" on. I really enjoyed Xzlda, love that name but not sure how to pronounce it, and Manfred, two new characters that definitely add to the story and make it even more interesting. They are two physics that help her solve the mystery. Manfred was as unique as Harper.
I like this series and I won't wait so long to read another book in this series. A slight word of warning...the body that Harper finds is that of a child. I heard someone once say that this author likes to take the uncomfortable problems in our society and writes about them to make us think about the victims. She is good at that if that is her intention. I read somewhere that she once wrote a book about a serial rapist after she herself was raped. Don't know if this is truth or fiction, or a ploy to sell more books. If Harper really existed outside of Ms. Harris's mind and her books, she would more than likely attempt to find all the innocent victims. Just seems that that is the kind of person she is even if it is only on paper. show less
Harper has a terrible childhood. Her mother and stepfather are alcoholics and drug show more addicts. Her sister is kidnapped and never found. Her family is split apart and she is terribly traumatized. Oh, and she can find the dead. She can "feel" them, know the cause of their death, and see the last few seconds of their life.
I really like supernatural, paranormal, ghostly books, so the supernatural aspect of this series...which I had read some of years ago...and Harper's physic ability to connect with the dead was a big draw to get in one more book in April. The dead always want to be heard; but as Harper tells the living, "You may not always like what you hear".
Harper is brought to Memphis, Tennessee to a graveyard. A college professor wants to test her physic abilities for his class. He believes that she is a fraud, but he soon finds that she is exactly what she claims to be....and she proves this when she finds a body...a body that should NOT be there. Harper has looked for this girl before...and now she's found her.
What follows is a great mystery...but that's what Haper "feeds" on. I really enjoyed Xzlda, love that name but not sure how to pronounce it, and Manfred, two new characters that definitely add to the story and make it even more interesting. They are two physics that help her solve the mystery. Manfred was as unique as Harper.
I like this series and I won't wait so long to read another book in this series. A slight word of warning...the body that Harper finds is that of a child. I heard someone once say that this author likes to take the uncomfortable problems in our society and writes about them to make us think about the victims. She is good at that if that is her intention. I read somewhere that she once wrote a book about a serial rapist after she herself was raped. Don't know if this is truth or fiction, or a ploy to sell more books. If Harper really existed outside of Ms. Harris's mind and her books, she would more than likely attempt to find all the innocent victims. Just seems that that is the kind of person she is even if it is only on paper. show less
This is a delightful, fun read which inspires me to obtain more of Charlaine Harris's books.
In this one, Harper Connelly is among the minority of people who survive a lightening strike, like those who go on, the medical problems are quirky and bothersome. None, however more unique than the fact that Harper is left with the ability to connect with people who died, and thus discerning the cause of their death by coming in contact with the graves and/or bodies of the deceased.
A few years earlier, Harper and her brother Tolliver were hired to investigate the disappearance of 11 year old Tabitha Morgenstern. Unable to solve the case, fast forward two years later when they are called to a graveyard in Memphis, TN where a college professor of show more a local university tries to debunk them in front of his students.
It was not surprising that Harper was able to accurately stand on the graves of the deceased, call out the names and tell the students the cause of death, but what was disconcerting was the fact that corner of the graveyard contained a man buried years ago and on top of his coffin, was the buried body of the eleven year old Tabitha.
While the book is not in depth and gripping, it was interesting enough for me to finish it in three short sittings. The characters were well developed and the story line was well written. If you are looking for a quick read that holds your interest, I recommend this book show less
In this one, Harper Connelly is among the minority of people who survive a lightening strike, like those who go on, the medical problems are quirky and bothersome. None, however more unique than the fact that Harper is left with the ability to connect with people who died, and thus discerning the cause of their death by coming in contact with the graves and/or bodies of the deceased.
A few years earlier, Harper and her brother Tolliver were hired to investigate the disappearance of 11 year old Tabitha Morgenstern. Unable to solve the case, fast forward two years later when they are called to a graveyard in Memphis, TN where a college professor of show more a local university tries to debunk them in front of his students.
It was not surprising that Harper was able to accurately stand on the graves of the deceased, call out the names and tell the students the cause of death, but what was disconcerting was the fact that corner of the graveyard contained a man buried years ago and on top of his coffin, was the buried body of the eleven year old Tabitha.
While the book is not in depth and gripping, it was interesting enough for me to finish it in three short sittings. The characters were well developed and the story line was well written. If you are looking for a quick read that holds your interest, I recommend this book show less
This is the second book in the Harper Connelly Mystery series, which features the team of Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver Lang who travel around the country helping to locate missing persons.
Twenty-four year old Harper was struck by lightning at age 15, and ever since, she can find dead people if the approximate location is known, and she can determine the cause of their deaths.
In this book, Harper and Tolliver travel to Memphis, hired by a prickly college professor to go through an old graveyard and share information about the dead with the students. At the last grave, however, Harper gets a surprise, when she discovers that the old grave has a second body inside, a body she “recognizes.” Several years earlier, she had show more been hired to come to Nashville and try and locate the body 11-year-old Tabitha Morgenstern, a young girl apparently abducted. She had failed to do so, but now, in more than a remarkable coincidence, Tabitha is literally right under her feet.
Harper and Tolliver connect with the Morgenstern family again, but Harper also experiences a more significant connection: she senses a ghost in the graveyard who communicates with her, and she doesn’t know why. Furthermore, she finds out that the grandson of a psychic called in on the Morgenstern case may be able to read minds. And finally, she is beginning to understand that the only one in her life she can trust is her stepbrother; should she stop thinking of him as her “brother?” She muses:
"I often thought, and sometimes said, that Tolliver would be better off if he hadn’t undertaken the role of my backbone. But when I tried to imagine myself going on the road alone, I felt a huge hole in my middle that refused to fill with anything.”
Discussion: Charlaine Harris can’t resist the tug of the supernatural! It wouldn’t surprise me if in the next “episode” of this series, we meet up with werewolves and vampires!
The characters in this series are darker than in the Sookie Stackhouse books; Harper uses language Sookie wouldn’t dream of using, and although both young women have a “disability,” Harper’s has bad physical repercussions, and she’s often in pain and/or depressed.
Nevertheless, Harris’s sense of humor and endearing quality of self-deprecation lighten up the series. As an example, when Harper encounters the ghost, she and Tolliver have this conversation:
Harper: ‘This is a thin place.’”
Tolliver: ‘What’s that?’
Harper: ‘A place where the other world is very close to this world, separated only by a thin membrane.’
Tolliver: ‘You’ve been reading Stephen King again.’”
Evaluation: The “mystery” portion of this book is rather insubstantial, but Harris's characterization is rich and marbled. I like the characters of Harper and Tolliver, I love Harris as a writer of tongue-in-cheek supernatural books, and because of those two factors, I wouldn’t hesitate to continue with this series. show less
Twenty-four year old Harper was struck by lightning at age 15, and ever since, she can find dead people if the approximate location is known, and she can determine the cause of their deaths.
In this book, Harper and Tolliver travel to Memphis, hired by a prickly college professor to go through an old graveyard and share information about the dead with the students. At the last grave, however, Harper gets a surprise, when she discovers that the old grave has a second body inside, a body she “recognizes.” Several years earlier, she had show more been hired to come to Nashville and try and locate the body 11-year-old Tabitha Morgenstern, a young girl apparently abducted. She had failed to do so, but now, in more than a remarkable coincidence, Tabitha is literally right under her feet.
Harper and Tolliver connect with the Morgenstern family again, but Harper also experiences a more significant connection: she senses a ghost in the graveyard who communicates with her, and she doesn’t know why. Furthermore, she finds out that the grandson of a psychic called in on the Morgenstern case may be able to read minds. And finally, she is beginning to understand that the only one in her life she can trust is her stepbrother; should she stop thinking of him as her “brother?” She muses:
"I often thought, and sometimes said, that Tolliver would be better off if he hadn’t undertaken the role of my backbone. But when I tried to imagine myself going on the road alone, I felt a huge hole in my middle that refused to fill with anything.”
Discussion: Charlaine Harris can’t resist the tug of the supernatural! It wouldn’t surprise me if in the next “episode” of this series, we meet up with werewolves and vampires!
The characters in this series are darker than in the Sookie Stackhouse books; Harper uses language Sookie wouldn’t dream of using, and although both young women have a “disability,” Harper’s has bad physical repercussions, and she’s often in pain and/or depressed.
Nevertheless, Harris’s sense of humor and endearing quality of self-deprecation lighten up the series. As an example, when Harper encounters the ghost, she and Tolliver have this conversation:
Harper: ‘This is a thin place.’”
Tolliver: ‘What’s that?’
Harper: ‘A place where the other world is very close to this world, separated only by a thin membrane.’
Tolliver: ‘You’ve been reading Stephen King again.’”
Evaluation: The “mystery” portion of this book is rather insubstantial, but Harris's characterization is rich and marbled. I like the characters of Harper and Tolliver, I love Harris as a writer of tongue-in-cheek supernatural books, and because of those two factors, I wouldn’t hesitate to continue with this series. show less
Grave Surprise
4 Stars
Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver, arrive in Memphis at the behest of an anthropology professor determined to debunk Harper's abilities and expose her as a charlatan. Imagine his surprise when Harper senses two corpses in a centuries old grave - one the body of Tabitha Morgenstern, a young girl who Harper was hired to find two year prior. Once again, Harper is the prime suspect and must undertake her own investigation to clear her name.
A charming cozy mystery with a touch of the paranormal.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. In this installment,Harper comes to the realization that she has more than sisterly feelings for her stepbrother. This is a significant issue for many reviewers as, show more for them, it is indicative of one of the oldest taboos - incest. Personally, I don’t see it that way as Harper and Tolliver are NOT related by blood. Their parents married when the two were in their teens and it is clear that they did not spend their formative years as siblings. Moreover, it is obvious even in book #1 that they share a closeness that goes beyond the brother/sister relationship, and as such this development is not surprising.
Back to the plot - the mystery is good albeit rather predictable as the identity of the killer and the motivation become obvious once the clues begin accumulating. Nevertheless, the climax is tense and the resolution satisfying.
Harper is a difficult heroine to categorize as her brusqueness could be interpreted as callous disregard and coldness. However, her tough veneer conceals a soft hearted woman who truly cares about both the living and the dead. She feels that it is her responsibility to provide them with the closure they are entitled to.
In terms of the audiobook narration, Alyssa Bresnahan does an excellent job. She manages to capture the nuances of Harper’s personality and those of the other characters very well.
In sum, Grave Surprise is an entertaining listen and I look forward to finding out what is in store next for Harper and Tolliver. show less
4 Stars
Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver, arrive in Memphis at the behest of an anthropology professor determined to debunk Harper's abilities and expose her as a charlatan. Imagine his surprise when Harper senses two corpses in a centuries old grave - one the body of Tabitha Morgenstern, a young girl who Harper was hired to find two year prior. Once again, Harper is the prime suspect and must undertake her own investigation to clear her name.
A charming cozy mystery with a touch of the paranormal.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. In this installment,
Back to the plot - the mystery is good albeit rather predictable as the identity of the killer and the motivation become obvious once the clues begin accumulating. Nevertheless, the climax is tense and the resolution satisfying.
Harper is a difficult heroine to categorize as her brusqueness could be interpreted as callous disregard and coldness. However, her tough veneer conceals a soft hearted woman who truly cares about both the living and the dead. She feels that it is her responsibility to provide them with the closure they are entitled to.
In terms of the audiobook narration, Alyssa Bresnahan does an excellent job. She manages to capture the nuances of Harper’s personality and those of the other characters very well.
In sum, Grave Surprise is an entertaining listen and I look forward to finding out what is in store next for Harper and Tolliver. show less
Grave Surprise is the second installment of the Harper Connolly series by Charlaine Harris. I rated the first book a 3 stars- and this book WAS an improvement over the first which is why it got .5 points (or stars?) better in my opinion. Maybe I'm grading this series so hard because after reading Charlaine's Southern Vampire Series I expect a lot? Haha, nahhhh...
My real complaint about this book is that it seemed a little redundant. I felt like the plot was super similar to that of the first book and there wasn't as much character development as I had hoped. Harper once again is struggling with her past and the fact that no one really accepts her for who (and what) she is. There isn't really anything cheery or upbeat about Harper (or show more the plot) in this book. Wow, I sound like Debbie Downer, don't I? That isn't the case- I just wanted to get the negative out of the way first! I don't want to leave you guys with a bad taste in your mouth afterall. Hehe. It was nice to see that Harper's reputation, career wise, is growing as well as her relationship with Tolliver is changing.
So, what do we have in Grave Surprise? A whole lot of 'who did it.' I don't mind a good thriller/mystery, so I liked trying to guess the murderer. (I'm normally really bad at guessing, so it is fun for me!) Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver, are requested by a professor in Memphis to read a cemetery on campus. His point in having her read the graves was to prove her a fraud. (Only the professor himself and a few others that worked for the college knew the names and causes of death for those in the graves.) Boy, did Harper prove the professor wrong! And in front of his entire class of undergraduate students! Serves him right. Not only does she identify all the corpses- she identifies one that has secretly been buried there. Surprise! It is the body of a young girl that Harper tried to locate once before- unsuccessfully. Now that they finally found the body, who kidnapped, killed and hid the body of the young girl?
The characters are well developed in this novel- I was just hoping that Harper would become a little less dependent on Tolliver. I have to say, their relationship does make me feel a little uncomfortable, but it is unique nonetheless. I haven't read anything that I can relate to this and I do like when books make me feel uncomfortable. Ah- and before I forget- there were some very intriguing secondary characters in this book. I enjoyed most of them while some irritated me. I like to be irritated by characters too, only makes it seem more real ;o) I can't wait to dig into book #4. (I already read book #3, just need to quit slacking and post a review!!)
I think that anyone who enjoys a good mystery should dig into this book. (As well as anyone that loves our Miss Stackhouse!) This was a breezy summer read. I won't be keeping it for my bookshelves, but I'm glad I read it. Three POINT five stars from me, Harper Connolly! (AND I love the Elvis shout outs!! It was fun seeing them in this as well as the Southern Vampire Series. Props to Harris. Hehe.) show less
My real complaint about this book is that it seemed a little redundant. I felt like the plot was super similar to that of the first book and there wasn't as much character development as I had hoped. Harper once again is struggling with her past and the fact that no one really accepts her for who (and what) she is. There isn't really anything cheery or upbeat about Harper (or show more the plot) in this book. Wow, I sound like Debbie Downer, don't I? That isn't the case- I just wanted to get the negative out of the way first! I don't want to leave you guys with a bad taste in your mouth afterall. Hehe. It was nice to see that Harper's reputation, career wise, is growing as well as her relationship with Tolliver is changing.
So, what do we have in Grave Surprise? A whole lot of 'who did it.' I don't mind a good thriller/mystery, so I liked trying to guess the murderer. (I'm normally really bad at guessing, so it is fun for me!) Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver, are requested by a professor in Memphis to read a cemetery on campus. His point in having her read the graves was to prove her a fraud. (Only the professor himself and a few others that worked for the college knew the names and causes of death for those in the graves.) Boy, did Harper prove the professor wrong! And in front of his entire class of undergraduate students! Serves him right. Not only does she identify all the corpses- she identifies one that has secretly been buried there. Surprise! It is the body of a young girl that Harper tried to locate once before- unsuccessfully. Now that they finally found the body, who kidnapped, killed and hid the body of the young girl?
The characters are well developed in this novel- I was just hoping that Harper would become a little less dependent on Tolliver. I have to say, their relationship does make me feel a little uncomfortable, but it is unique nonetheless. I haven't read anything that I can relate to this and I do like when books make me feel uncomfortable. Ah- and before I forget- there were some very intriguing secondary characters in this book. I enjoyed most of them while some irritated me. I like to be irritated by characters too, only makes it seem more real ;o) I can't wait to dig into book #4. (I already read book #3, just need to quit slacking and post a review!!)
I think that anyone who enjoys a good mystery should dig into this book. (As well as anyone that loves our Miss Stackhouse!) This was a breezy summer read. I won't be keeping it for my bookshelves, but I'm glad I read it. Three POINT five stars from me, Harper Connolly! (AND I love the Elvis shout outs!! It was fun seeing them in this as well as the Southern Vampire Series. Props to Harris. Hehe.) show less
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Charlaine Harris was born in Tunica, Mississippi on November 25, 1951. She attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She wrote poetry and plays before beginning to publish mysteries set in the American South. She is the author of the Aurora Teagarden Mystery series, the Lily Bard Mystery series, the Harper Connelly series, and the Sookie show more Stackhouse series. In 2001, the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead until Dark, won an Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery. The series was adapted as a TV show on HBO called True Blood. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Grave Surprise
- Original title
- Grave Surprise
- Original publication date
- 2006-09-01
- People/Characters
- Harper Connelly; Tolliver Lang; Clyde Nunley; Tabitha Morgenstern
- Important places
- Memphis, Tennessee, USA
- Dedication
- This book is dedicated to a tiny minority of the American population: people who have survived a lightning strike. Members of a small and exclusive club, some of these survivors spend the rest of their lives trying to convinc... (show all)e doctors of the validity of the myriad of ongoing problems plaguing them. The other survivors simply try to go on with their lives, though they’re invariably altered by the experience. I wish you all freedom from pain and anxiety, and I thank you for letting me share your experiences.
- First words
- I didn't like Clyde Nunley the first time I met him face-to-face in the old cemetary.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)After that, we rode a good ways in silence.
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