Kari C. reviewed on 11/7/2010 + 77 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

"Grave Sight" is the story of Harper Connaly and her step-brother Tolliver. Harper was hit with lightening when she was a teen and developed the ability to sense where bodies are. Once she finds a body she sees/experiences their last moments with them. Now all grown up Harper travels the country helping police and family find missing people. Tolliver travels with her as her manager/bodyguard.

The book has an interesting premis, but that's about it. I still can't quite figure out why Harper starts investigating the mysteries of the small town of Sarne. Sure, the police are interested in them in relation to a murder that happened after they visited a person, but it's also pretty clear that's only because the police see Harper as a trickster preying on the grieving, and not because there's anything actually tying them to the murder besides talking to the woman. Harper and her brother don't really have any emotional tie to the whole slew of dead people in this tiny town. It really seems like the only reason they're "investigating" is because the sheriff doesn't want them leaving town and they're bored.

The fact that they've never investigated a murder, much less a series of murders is quite evident. At one point they whedle an ex-husband into giving them hair samples from him, his recently deceased ex-wife and thier supposed daughter to figure out if he was actually the father. Except that they're already working under the assumption that he's not the father, and that someone else believes that he's the father as well. So what does it matter if the ex-husband is the father - if someone else believes that he's the father and might be making decisions based on that, does it really matter if the ex is the biological father or not? Anyway, even if the ex isn't the father, where does that get them? Right where they were before they decided to look into that.

It's a bit ridiculous how many people in this small tourist town are being murdered, especially once you figure out the reason.

Harper is certainly not Sookie Stackhouse. While Harper does have an interesting ability, her emotional problems get to be just a bit too much. She gets all upset when her brother tries to insist on knowing where she's going and who she's going with, insisting that she's more than capable of taking care of herself. Yet anytime she has to do without him she completely falls apart, and lashes out blindly at anyone she can. For someone who practically raised 3 younger sisters, she's remarkably unable to take care of herself. She's needy, whiny and annoying.

If this were the first book I was reading by Charlaine Harris I would stop right here. However, since I like the Sookie Stackhouse series so much, I'll be giving the second book a chance and seeing if the series improves.

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