July 16, 2007
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.
Starred review from September 1, 2007
In the third installment (after "Grave Surprise") of her supernatural series featuring psychic Harper Connelly and her partner and stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, Harper is hired to find the bodies of six teenage boys who went missing over a two-year period. She discovers them buried in the frozen ground just outside of Doreville, NC, a good place to live until the community realizes that one of its own is a serial killer. Harris's greatest strength is creating realistic, fully rounded characters with just a sentence or two; her depiction of gruesome crimes is such that this work is not for the faint of heart. But fans of paranormal mysteries, especially of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books, will snap this book up. Harris also writes the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series and lives in Arkansas. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 6/1/07.]
Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 1, 2007
After being struck by lightning as a teenager, Harper Connelly has developed the unique ability to find the dead and see how they died. She and her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, run a business in which they travel the country assisting law-enforcement personnel and family members of the dead. In her third case, Harper is hired by a woman to find her missing grandson. In fact, numerous teenage boys have disappeared from Doraville, North Carolina. Harper finds the bodies, but still reeling from coming into contact with her first serial killer, she is attacked and injured. She stays in Doraville to recover and assist in the investigation. Harris series makes the most of its unusal premise, using the paranormal elements to good effect. She has also created a winning heroine; Harper is a caring person who gives closure to victims families often at great cost to herself as she deals with the skepticism of the law-enforcement community. Her developing relationship with Tolliver grows and changes in this installment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)