An Ice Cold Grave
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4.3 • 32 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Harper Connelly faces her first serial killer in the third paranormal mystery from bestselling author Charlaine Harris.
Harper Connelly was struck by lightning as a teenager - now she can find dead people and uses her special talent to make a living. Hired to locate a missing boy, Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver head to Doraville, North Carolina. But the truth is far worse than they feared. Numerous teenaged boys have disappeared from Doraville over the years. All unlikely runaways. All calling for Harper.
She soon finds them - eight bodies, buried in the half-frozen ground. All Harper wants is to collect her fee and leave town before she's caught in the media storm. But then she's attacked, and learns far more than she cares to about the long-hidden secrets of Doraville.
Knowledge that makes her next in line to end up in an ice-cold grave. . .
'Harris delivers a knuckle-gnawing tale . . . [that] will challenge the most jaded mystery buffs' Publishers Weekly on Grave Sight
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Harris's exciting third Harper Connelly mystery (after 2006's Grave Surprise) finds the psychic sleuth faced with her most challenging and heartbreaking job to date: locating the bodies of "runaway" boys who the people of Doraville, N.C., suspect have become victims of a serial killer. After Harper locates eight long-dead bodies, much to the surprise of skeptical Sheriff Sandra Rockwell, a mysterious figure attacks Harper. Though all Harper wants is to go home and recover from her injuries, the local authorities and State Bureau of Investigation agents demand that she stay in town to help with their investigation. The cold case heats up fast, attracting media attention as well as Harper's friends, ailing psychic Xylda Bernardo and her doting grandson, Manfred, who make another gruesome discovery. Harper's changing relationship with her stepbrother, manager and confidant, Tolliver Lang, lends personal interest. Harris dependably delivers fear with charming down-home finesse.
Customer Reviews
Keep these coming please
First off I am a fan of the Stackhouse novels. The way I have commented here is based on the assumption that many will, as I did, come to look at these books as a result of loving Sookie's stories. Harper's tales are not the True Blood formula and that is interesting - to find an author than can write outside of her successful formula and has the guts to do so. The Harper book series is much quieter. These are real people in a real world rather than the larger than life grotesques of the True Blood series. There is a paranormal element, but the central characters are accepting to the point of resigned about it and more often than not hold their tongues rather than jump in guns blazing as Sookie and her cohorts would do.
Romance and physical contact is present in these novels but (so far in the series at least) not the eroticism Sookie lovers may expect. If you have certain passages of book four of Sookie's story marked, spine broken or very dog-eared then you may be disappointed. What will not disappoint is the more measured approach, the gentle character development and interactions. It takes more than one book to appreciate this. The narratives are crime based due to the nature of Harper's condition, but thought through and not as easy to guess 'whodunnit' as some out there. This book, the 3rd in the series is the one I have enjoyed most of the first four.
I would, and have, recommended this series to others but try to proceed without preconceptions or you will be disappointed and would be missing out on a worthwhile read.
Plenty more where that came from...
From a huge Charlaine Harris fan, i have to say that this is one of her finest books yet; it is utterly gripping. Onto the next one!