An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 3) [Hardcover]

Charlaine Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2007

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

All calling for Harper.

Harper soon finds them—eight victims, buried in the half-frozen ground, all come to an unspeakable end. Afterward, what she most wants to do is collect her fee and get out of town ahead of the media storm that's soon 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.

Editorial Reviews

From 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. (Oct.)
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From Booklist

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 unusual 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. Sue O'Brien

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime; Ist Editon edition (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425217299
• ISBN-13: 978-0425217290
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (125 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #576,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Charlaine Harris (born November 25, 1951 in Tunica, Mississippi) is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over twenty years. She was raised in the Mississippi River Delta area. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and, later, teenage angst, she wrote plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She began to write books a few years later.
After publishing two stand-alone mysteries, Harris launched a lighthearted series "starring" Georgia librarian Aurora Teagarden, with Real Murders, a Best Novel nominee for the 1990 Agatha Awards. Harris wrote eight Aurora titles. In 1996, she released the first of the much darker Shakespeare mysteries, featuring the amateur sleuth Lily Bard, a karate student who makes her living cleaning houses. Shakespeare's Counselor, the fifth--and last-- was printed in fall 2001.
After Shakespeare, Harris created The Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series about a telepathic waitress who works in a bar in the fictional Northern Louisiana town of Bon Temps. The first of these, Dead Until Dark, won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Mystery in 2001. Each book follows Sookie as she tries to solve mysteries involving vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. The series, which now numbers nine titles, has been released worldwide.
Sookie Stackhouse proved to be so popular that Alan Ball, creator of Six Feet Under, announced he would undertake the production of a new show for HBO based upon the books. He wrote and directed the pilot episode for that series, True Blood, which premiered in September of 2008. It was an instant success and was quickly picked up for a second season.
In October 2005, Harris's new mystery series about a young woman named Harper Connelly debuted with the release of Grave Sight. Harper has the ability to determine the cause of death of any body. There are now three Harper titles (GRAVE SIGHT, GRAVE SURPRISE, AN ICE COLD GRAVE) with a 4th (GRAVE SECRET) to be released in 2009.
Harris has also co-edited three very popular anthologies with her friend Toni L.P. Kelner. The anthologies feature stories with an element of the supernatural, and the submissions come from a rare mixture of mystery and urban fantasy writers.
Professionally, Harris is a member of the Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League. She is a member of the board of Sisters in Crime, and alternates with Joan Hess as president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance. Personally, Harris is married and the mother of three. She lives in a small town in Southern Arkansas and when she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murder is always a mistake - one should never do anything one cannot talk about after dinner. -Oscar Wilde, January 18, 2008

By 

Cherise Everhard (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 3) (Hardcover)

This is the third book in the Harper Connelly Mystery series.

For the past several years six boys of a similar age have gone missing in the town of Doraville, North Carolina. The previous Sheriff refused to find anything sinister in or even investigate their disappearances, claiming they were probably runaways or suicides. The new sheriff, who was deputy under the old sheriff, has always thought something was wrong. But she has run out of leads and ideas on how to locate the boys.

Word of Harper Connelly's gift of finding the dead has reached the town and Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver arrive in the hopes of helping. Twyla is the grandmother of one of the missing boys and is willing to try anything at this point. She convinces the sheriff and the other townspeople to hire and give Harper a chance. It isn't long before Harpers gifts are proven and she and Tolliver are at the sight of horrific crimes.

This book is by far the best in the bunch. While I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books, this one blew me away. The mystery is troubling and the set up is tight; I was on the edge of my seat (couch) waiting for the murderer to be caught. There are more than a few frightening and terrifyingly disturbing moments in this book and I found myself more than once holding my breath or gasping in shock.

This is definitely a darker book than I am used to reading from Ms. Harris, but the journey was just as an enjoyable. Harper and Tolliver give it just enough lightness and energy to keep it from being too dark. They have some serious issues that come to head in this book, making me all the more eager to get onto the next. An Ice Cold Grave gave me chills and warmed my heart; an exciting combination!

Grave Sight (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 1)
Grave Surprise (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 2)

Cherise Everhard, January 2008

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is my favorite so far!, September 26, 2007

By 

R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 3) (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of Harper Connelly and Tolliver Lang since "Grave Secret." To date, Charlaine Harris has not disappointed me. "An Ice Cold Grave" is, in my opinion, the best book of the series. For those of you new to the series, Harper Connelly was struck by lightning at 15. That incident left her with a set of strange illnesses and the ability to find dead bodies and discover their cause of death from reading them. She travels around the country with Tolliver, who was raised as a brother, but is not related by blood working to help find lost people or determine the cause of death.

Doraville, NC--winter's coming. With six missing persons, all of them male and under 20, the grieving townsfolk have nothing to lose when they take up a collection to bring Harper Connelly in to find the young boys.

She finds all six of them pretty quickly at an abandoned property near where one of the boys was lost. All six of the boys from the town are there--as well as two boys missing from other nearby communities. Details Harper gets from reading the remains make her sicker and sadder than any other case she's ever worked--in no small part probably due to her losing her own older sister to an abuductor during high school.

Harper and Tolliver want nothing more than to leave town just as soon as the check for their services is cut. Unfortunately, the Sheriff and the State Bureau of Investigation aren't going to allow that--and an attack on Harper ties them further to the town.

An ice storm is closing in Knott County, NC and a serial killer is on the loose. He's got a particular interest in Harper since she was the one who found his cache of bodies.

"An Ice Cold Grave" is the strongest of Harper Connelly books so far. There's a lot more at stake here--both for the families of the decedents and Harper herself. There's not just implied but actual violence.

In my opinion, this is the best-written of the series. Both Harper and Tolliver have come into their own as characters. We've known them and liked them for a long time, but they now know themselves and what they want as individuals and as a team.

Ms. Harris also does a great job setting the scene. Her writing really does take you there to the NC mountains and a town laid open by grief. She understands this kind of situation and treats it with grace.

The plot kept me reading page after page til the book was done. "An Ice Cold Grave" is a satisfying read that I'd recommend to fans of mysteries, thrillers and paranormal fiction. While you don't have to read "Grave Secret" and "Grave Surprise" to understand this book, it's definitely not a waste of your time to do so.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Series keeps getting better, September 27, 2007

By 

ellen "ellen in atlanta" (Atlanta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 3) (Hardcover)

Charlaine Harris has gelled the Harper Connelly Mysteries - The main characters have settled in and have a more three dimensional air about them -
Without giving any spoilers away - Harper and her 'brother' Tolliver are asked to go to Doraville, North Carolina to help find what they presume dead bodies of at least six young men - As they have in the past, they are met with a mix of reactions - Harper can find the dead, and know what caused their deaths. When Harper helps the sheriff of Doraville, she is injured (by the killer?) and has to stay for a while.
This sets Harper up to deal with whoever is doing the murders.
The reader should be aware there is more vivid violence, detailed sex, and language than previous Harper books.
Harris is hitting her stride with this series, and I liked this book better than her latest Sookie Stackhouse book.
Harper is believable and her gift is being fine tuned. What was referred to in previous books comes to a resolution, which in itself, can be a wild predicament.
It is a sound series, and a great book.