Grave Surprise (Harper Connelly Series #2)

by Charlaine Harris

Overview

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, 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...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425214701
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/25/2007
Series:	Harper Connelly Series , #2
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	388,280
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 6.73(h) x 0.85(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Charlaine Harris is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse and Midnight, Texas, fantasy/mystery series and the Aurora Teagarden, Harper Connelly, and Lily Bard mystery series. Her books have inspired HBO’s True Blood, NBC’s Midnight, Texas, and the Aurora Teagarden movies for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. She has lived in the South her entire life.

Hometown:

Southern Arkansas

Date of Birth:

November 25, 1951

Place of Birth:

Tunica, Mississippi

Education:

B.A. in English and Communication Arts, Rhodes, 1973

Website:

http://www.charlaineharris.com

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the Harper Connelly Mystery series 
 
“Charges in with plenty of plot.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“[Harris] has a great gift for getting inside her characters and making them amazingly real.”—The Denver Post

“Grabs your heart and doesn’t let go.”—Gumshoe Review
 
“A winning supernatural caper...Should make Harper...as popular as Sookie Stackhouse.”—Publishers Weekly

“A spooky but sweet amateur detective mystery full of interesting characters.”—Locus

From the Publisher

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) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

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.

Library Journal

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. Agent: Joshua Bilmes/JABberwocky Literary Agency

Kirkus Reviews

Lightning strikes have different effects on people, and on Harper Connelly the effect is an ability to find corpses and understand how they were killed. She is invited to explore a cemetery by a Memphis college professor who believes everything related to the paranormal is a fraud. As she makes her way through the cemetery, she comes across a surprise—the body of Tabitha, a young girl she was hired to find 18 months earlier when the girl disappeared in Nashville. Alyssa Bresnahan gives a low-key performance that makes Harper a believable and sensitive character. Bresnahan’s steady intensity brings the suspense to the fore without overstatement. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

AUG/SEP 07 - AudioFile