It's a Dangerous Job but No One Else Can Do It

"Since the lightning snaked through the window of the trailer in Texarkana when I was fifteen, I've been able to locate corpses. Think about it. Caveman corpses, Native American corpses, the early settlers, the more recently deceased- that's a lot of dead people, and they all let me know where their earthly remains were interred..."

Hired to find a boy gone missing in Doraville, North Carolina, Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver head there- only to discover that the boy was only one of several who had disappeared over the previous five years. All of them teenagers. All unlikely runaways.

All calling to Harper.

Harper soon finds them- eight victims, buried in the half-frozen ground, all come to an unspeakable end. Afterwards, what she most wants to do is collect her fee and get out of town ahead of the media storm that's about to descend. But when she's attacked and prevented from leaving, she reluctantly becomes a part of the investigation as she learns more than she cares to about the dark mysteries and long- hidden secrets of Doraville- knowledge that makes her the next person likely to rest in an ice cold grave...

Title: An Ice Cold Grave
Author: Charlaine Harris
Series: Harper Connelly, Book 3
Start & Finished: 3/20/08
Published: 2007
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Pages: 280
Genre: Mystery-Paranormal

After being struck by lightning, many people have claimed to be able to do things that aren’t considered exactly normal but Harper Connelly may have the most interesting ability of them all: she finds dead bodies. An Ice Cold Grave is the third book in this amazing series by one of the best paranormal mystery writers of today, Charlaine Harris.

Many mystery heroines find dead bodies and solve their murders but Charlaine Harris’ Harper Connelly is the only one who can actually not only locate the departed but also get a glimpse of their last moments and learn the cause of death too (just not who killed them if they were murdered). Because of this the Harper series is my second favorite series by Charlaine Harris (the first being her Sookie Stackhouse). You wouldn’t think the Harpers are her darkest series since there are vampires, weres, and other creatures in the Sookies but this is definitely the grittier of the two.

Harper’s love life takes an interesting turn in Ice Cold too. I personally find it a little icky, but I guess that’s what makes it even more real because you can’t choose who you love. It was remarkably clever of the author to let something good happen to her heroine since she is investigating her first mass grave (Harper empathizes with the victims) and has a serial killer after her. As long as Harper keeps doing what she does, I’ll keep reading this truly unique series.

The Harper Connelly Series: Grave Sight, Grave Surprise, & An Ice Cold Grave