Grave surprise
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Published Reviews
Booklist Review
After Harper Connelly was struck by lightning as a teenager, she developed an unusual ability--she is able to locate bodies and see how the victims died, although she cannot identify the murderers. Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, are at Bingham College doing a demonstration for a class, identifying bodies and causes of death in an old graveyard, when Harper finds the body of Tabitha Morgenstern, a kidnapped young girl she had failed to locate months ago. To clear their names--the police consider Harper and Tolliver suspects in the crime--they set out to find the real killer. Harper and Tolliver are likable, well-developed characters whose unhappy past binds them together as they care for one another and work together. Harper craves normalcy as she wonders whether her talent is a gift or a curse. The supernatural elements are integrated believably into the plot in this engrossing mystery, the second in a series. --Sue O'Brien Copyright 2006 Booklist
Publisher's Weekly Review
At the start of Harris's winning second supernatural caper to feature Harper Connelly (after 2005's Grave Sight), a skeptical anthropology professor, Clyde Nunley, tests Harper's gift of clairvoyance in a historic Memphis cemetery, where Harper correctly senses a fresh corpse in the wrong grave. Strangely, the body turns out to be a missing 12-year-old girl, Tabitha Morgenstern, whom Harper failed to locate in Nashville on a case two years earlier. The hotel suite of Harper and her manager and stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, both of whom fall under suspicion, becomes a magnet for a medley of amusing characters, including Memphis cops, Tabitha's assorted relatives and a drunken Clyde Nunley, who, shortly after accusing Harper of fraud, is found dead in the same grave as Tabitha. Peppered with the author's trademark deadpan wit, this book should help make Harper and Tolliver as popular as Sookie Stackhouse, the heroine of Harris's vampire mystery series (Definitely Dead, etc.). Author tour. (Sept. 26) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal Review
It's no surprise when Harper "I See Dead People" Connelly discovers three bodies...but in one grave? Harris lives in Arkansas. Author tour. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Book Review
Being struck by lightning has given Harper Connelly (Grave Sight, 2005, etc.) the ability to find dead bodies and know what killed them--a spooky talent that earns her a living and places her in frequent danger. Clyde Nunley is a professor at a Memphis-area college who loves to debunk paranormal behavior. When he invites Harper Connelly to visit an old campus graveyard where records labeling the bodies and causes of death have just been discovered, she confounds him as she works through the graves, correctly identifying each manner of death, until she comes to one she knows contains a recent burial. The body is that of Tabitha Morgenstern, 11, whose body Harper had tried and failed to find 18 months earlier. Harper's stepbrother Tolliver, her manager and traveling companion, had had a brief affair with Tabitha's aunt. The skeptical police consider Harper a prime suspect when Nunley turns up dead in the same grave after verbally abusing Harper in a hotel lobby. Because Harper and Tolliver come from a dysfunctional family, they recognize problems among the Morgensterns, and they soon unearth many snippets of information that never came to light in the original investigation. The amateur sleuths have their own near-death experience before the killer is discovered. Believers and skeptics alike will enjoy Harper's search for the truth and her changing relationship with Tolliver. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Reviews
After Harper Connelly was struck by lightning as a teenager, she developed an unusual ability--she is able to locate bodies and see how the victims died, although she cannot identify the murderers. Harper and her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, are at Bingham College doing a demonstration for a class, identifying bodies and causes of death in an old graveyard, when Harper finds the body of Tabitha Morgenstern, a kidnapped young girl she had failed to locate months ago. To clear their names--the police consider Harper and Tolliver suspects in the crime--they set out to find the real killer. Harper and Tolliver are likable, well-developed characters whose unhappy past binds them together as they care for one another and work together. Harper craves normalcy as she wonders whether her talent is a gift or a curse. The supernatural elements are integrated believably into the plot in this engrossing mystery, the second in a series. ((Reviewed October 1, 2006)) Copyright 2006 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
It's no surprise when Harper "I See Dead People" Connelly discovers three bodies...but in one grave? Harris lives in Arkansas. Author tour. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
At the start of Harris's winning second supernatural caper to feature Harper Connelly (after 2005's Grave Sight ), a skeptical anthropology professor, Clyde Nunley, tests Harper's gift of clairvoyance in a historic Memphis cemetery, where Harper correctly senses a fresh corpse in the wrong grave. Strangely, the body turns out to be a missing 12-year-old girl, Tabitha Morgenstern, whom Harper failed to locate in Nashville on a case two years earlier. The hotel suite of Harper and her manager and stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, both of whom fall under suspicion, becomes a magnet for a medley of amusing characters, including Memphis cops, Tabitha's assorted relatives and a drunken Clyde Nunley, who, shortly after accusing Harper of fraud, is found dead in the same grave as Tabitha. Peppered with the author's trademark deadpan wit, this book should help make Harper and Tolliver as popular as Sookie Stackhouse, the heroine of Harris's vampire mystery series (Definitely Dead , etc.). Author tour. (Sept. 26)
[Page 183]. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.