Reviewed by: Amanda Wrangles
Long before Charlaine Harris became uber-famous with True Blood fans, she was a crime writer. In fact, she still writes crime, and yes, sometimes those crimes involve werewolves, shapeshifters, telepathic waitresses and vampires. And sometimes they involve young women who find dead bodies for a living.
When a bolt of lightning struck a young Harper Connelly through the window of the family’s trailer, it left her with more than a weird, spider-webby scar on her weakened leg – it also left her with a new ability. Harper finds bodies – not ghosts – but she is able to ‘feel’ what caused their demise
Grave Sight is by and large a crime novel, but obviously, due to the protagonist’s special talent, it also crosses into the paranormal genre. And that is where the real fun begins.
In Grave Sight, we’re introduced to Harper and her sorta-kinda-mostly-sometimes brother; Tolliver. This dynamic duo of dysfunctional family life traipse their way across the USA, helping people find lost (dead) loved ones. For a price, of course.
Harper has learned to take hold of her ghastly gift by getting in, doing the job of finding the body if there’s one to be found, getting paid and getting out of town again as quickly as possible. Not that she’s a charlatan – no – Harper is the real deal; it’s just that people tend to get a little freaked out by those that dare to charge a fee in this type of circumstance. But hey, a girl’s gotta eat.
When Harper and Tolliver are first approached by Sybil Teague to find the missing Monteen ‘Teenie’ Harris, the deal sounds simple enough. Teenie went missing the day Sybil’s son was shot dead in the local woods. Teenie is described by the folk of small town Sarne as being ‘wild as a razorback’, but Harper thinks there’s more going on than a couple of crazy teens gone wrong. When the mystery of what happened to Teenie is solved the first time Harper enters the woods and senses her body hidden in a shallow grave, things get interesting. The hostile local sheriff and most of the townsfolk find it hard to believe Harper and Tolliver had no prior knowledge of what now appears to be a double murder, and Tolliver winds up in jail on trumped up charges.
Without Tolliver to protect her, a scared and weak Harper must find the killer (or killers) on her own – with a little help from a good looking deputy.
Grave Sight is very much a small-town saga with a large cast of interesting characters. Their lives weave intricately through one another’s, staining each other in the worst possible ways. It comes down to Harper to untangle what it was that happened in the distant past that caused the violent deaths of the teens, and who it is that wants to frame Tolliver so badly now.
Harper is sarcastic, witty and wry. She’s definitely cut from the same mould as Sookie Stackhouse – Harris’ most famous heroine – and I like her almost as much. She’s insecure, needy and relies too much on Tolliver, but Harper is also real, human and easy to empathise with. You just can’t help liking her and championing her strange relationship with Tolliver, of which we learn more about in Book Two: Grave Surprise.
-Mandy Wrangles.
Grave Sight, first published in 2005.
Published in 2007 by Gollancz (Great Britain)
Paperback, 263 pages
ISBN 978 0 57507 9 236
January 30th, 2011 at 11:47 pm
I love the relationship between Harper and Tolliver.
This series rocks.
January 31st, 2011 at 1:44 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mandywrangles, Marianne de Pierres. Marianne de Pierres said: @mandywrangles reviews Grave Sight: http://www.tarasharp.com/grave-sight-by-charlaine-harris/ [...]