Customer Reviews

Grave Secret (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 4)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If this book isn't the end of the Harper Connelly series, it certainly feels like it.

"Grave Secret" is a pretty solid conclusion to Charlaine Harris' short but sweet series about a woman able to sense the dearly departed. Mysteries are solved, plot threads are wrapped up, relatives are dealt with, and dirty little secrets are unveiled -- and while one pivotal secret is rather far-fetched, it handles all the loose threads deftly while keeping the door open for more possible stories about Harper and Tolliver.

After doing a job for the wealthy Joyce family, Harper and Tolliver face their toughest challenge yet: telling super-rigid Aunt Iona, Uncle Hank and their younger half-sisters that they're a couple. It doesn't help that this town is also where they lived as the abused blended family of neglectful junkies, and where Harper's beloved sister Cameron mysteriously vanished. As if their family relations weren't strained enough, Tolliver's creepy dad Matthew appears in town, claiming he wants to mend fences.

At the same time, Harper has been hired by the Joyces to find a missing baby that may be their grandfather's secret love child -- but someone is determined to keep her from finding it. People around her are getting injured, kidnapped and murdered -- even Tolliver has been shot. And as Harper tries to unravel the mysteries from years ago, she realizes that the Joyce family has a long-ago link to her own...

It's fairly obvious in "Grave Secret" that Charlaine Harris is ending the Harper Connelly series, although she leaves the door open for future adventures (if and when she ever wants to continue). She wraps up overhanging mysteries (Cameron's murder), deals with the rifts within the Lang/Connelly family, and puts the finishing polish on Harper and Tolliver's romantic subplot. It's a satisfying finale, if a somewhat bittersweet one.

And as in the previous books, Harris' down-to-earth prose remains warm and slightly humorous, but there's a darker, gruesome edge -- long-ago deaths, gory killings (some of them Harper's friends), and the overhanging, spooky presence of the dead. The biggest flaw is that a few of the plot twists is a bit on the far-fetched side (seriously, NOBODY noticed that except one lone person?), but otherwise it's a clever tangle of interconnected clues and lies.

Harper and Tolliver are already lovers, but Harris goes out of her way to smooth out whatever wrinkles are still left between them -- including the grossed-out reaction that almost everybody has when they hear that the stepsiblings are dating. Well, it is a little weird. They also get some nice emotional closure relating to their scummy parents and more "normal" siblings (both living and dead), and Harris reveals a lot more about their hellish childhood.

And Harris does a good job sketching out seemingly cliched characters like Aunt Iona and Uncle Hank, who initially act like sour hyper-religious party-poopers, but who eventually are shown to have good hearts. The flipside is the creepy Matthew, who spouts a lot of "rehab therapy" jargon but still obviously has a lot of hatred.

"Grave Secret" is a solid ending to Charlaine Harris's supernatural mystery series, and it ties together the various plot threads pretty neatly. Enjoyable if a bit far-fetched at times.

Now better known for her Sookie Stackhouse series, this series was my first introdution to this authors' work. Having read all her writings, I don't know why this series did not take off. It seems so much deeper and had a melancholy richness that her other stories do not. Considering how deeply skilled this author is, from the silly cozy mysteries to the philosphical quandry of this series--I cannot pass up a book with her name on it. All of her books are keepers, but this series has a special place on my bookshelf. The common theme of her stories is how women cope when undreamed of changes shatter an old life and demand new groundrules. Plus the various "helpers" all come with their own set of challenges. Start at the beginning of this series and allow yourself a place in Harpers' world. Notice how the rhythm of the writing is different--almost slower--and the problems far more tragic and pointed. Be very careful--as is wise Harper--as to who you let get close.

There are two main mysteries going in the concluding volume of the Harper series. One of them's pretty well-done, and the other seems like an afterthought. But by the end of the book, there aren't any lingering questions that would merit another book in the series, so there's that.

The story moves along at a fair clip, and unfortunately relies on contrivance a lot to either prolong suspense or force resolution. At times, Harper and her brother/lover/whatever (and it's pretty weird that they haven't settled THAT bit of vocabulary) make mindblowingly stupid choices to further the plot. There's a lot of peppering description with "she saw someone suspicious out of the corner of her eye, but didn't bother to look closer" and a couple of instances when you wonder if Harper and her brother/lover/whatever have learned anything about caution from their previous run-ins with people who want them dead. These protagonists are not particularly smart, is what I'm saying.

The previous book in the series was far creepier and more suspenseful, and actually had me reading late into the night. This one takes a more Dan Brown route, building up a confrontation only to blow it within a few paragraphs. Read it to wrap up the series, there's nothing wrong with most of the story elements. But it's not as smoothly crafted as I think it could have been, with more time and editing.

This is the final installment in Charlaine Harris's Harper Connelly series. It's the story of a young woman who, having been struck by lightening as a teenager, is able to sense the dead. In the presence of a dead human body, she can "see" the final few moments of their lives and determine the cause of death. Following a difficult and abusive childhood and adolescence, she travels the country with her stepbrother, contracting out to law enforcement and private individuals to locate the lost deceased, or to determine the cause of death.

I love this series for its bravery in tackling certain serious subject matter - child abuse and neglect, making one's own way in the world despite tragic circumstances - and I love the characters, who are portrayed in an immensely interesting and realistic way. I enjoyed the first installment (Grave Sight), loved the second (Grave Surprise) and was blown away by the complex and riveting third installment (An Ice Cold Grave). I enjoyed this fourth and final installment too, but I felt the plot relied a bit too heavily on contrivance and convenience. As the last book in the series, I know certain threads needed to be tied up, but this book could perhaps have used some additional editing, and it didn't flow as organically as other books in the series. [Obviously I can't speculate on the whys, but it seems like Ms. Harris must have a lot of demands on her time these days with the success of Sookie Stackhouse and True Blood. If that's so, then I for one thank her for making time for this last Harper Connelly book. I couldn't have stood not knowing how things turned for Harper. :)]

But despite the somewhat contrived plot, I still thought it was great, and I do recommend it (but read the rest of the series first, and read it in order or you won't get the full effect). I feel it is a satisfying end to the series, and I feel it was the right end to the series. I have always thought that one of Charlaine Harris's great strengths is writing realistic characters with human flaws, with all the emotional, intellectual and moral gray areas that most of us have. She is not afraid to tackle tough material, and she wisely lets us know in all of her stories that there cannot always be a happy ending for everyone - but you have to live the best life you can anyway, and work at creating your happiness. That maybe sounds a little touchy feely, so let me assure you that the Harper Connelly series is just plain interesting and I think many people would be curious to read it and see how it plays out. In fact, I described the books to a friend of mine the other day, and she immediately rushed out to the library to see if she could find the first book in the series.

I love Charlaine's writing style that sucks you right in, and her characterization; it's impossible not to warm up to heroines like Harper and Sookie, or be right there with them as they experience every little plot twist and feeling. This book, I was very excited to read, awaiting eagerly to finally know what happened to Harper's sister. And while I marvelled once again at the little bits and pieces Charlaine had me gathering along my reading right until the astonishing ending, I felt that something was missing from the heart of this book. Perhaps that's my impression, along with the feeling that the writing, plot wise, felt a little rushed to reach certain conclusions. So while I enjoyed reading it, I must give this Harper mystery 4 stars; the 'something more' - be it intrigue, character interaction, the action and suspence leading to the mystery's solution - that had me turning the pages eagerly in her previous book, was somehow faint and subdued in this one.

I like this series better than some of the author's other series, which I've also read. Harper's supernatural ability to tell what caused a death from standing near the person's grave but not to tell who killed them seems more realistic. Harris is also really good at painting a picture of what life is like for people who are struggling for money and who worry about insurance, who shop at Wal-Mart, and who have real low life family members. It all adds to the realism of the series. This book is largely about Harper's low life and/or abused family members, dead and living, and the relatives who mean well but can't quite get Harper and her romantic relationship with her stepbrother. To say more would give away the ending, but it's well written and well drawn and the conclusion, as always, is one that is both very fast, like a one-two punch, and something you don't see coming. Personally, I'd rather read about Harper than Sookie, so I hope the author revisits them sometime.

So ever since my decadent little re-read of Fire I've been in a reading slump. One foul doozy of a slump. I restlessly picked up and put down a handful of books, all of them full of potential, none of them able to hold my attention. Fortunately I'm still thinking clearly enough at this point to know it's me with the problem, not them. And I carefully set them aside on the nightstand to be picked up in a later, more amenable mood. But desperation was setting in and my family was starting to feel the effects. And then a friend saved the day by reminding me the new Harper Connelly book was out! The fourth installment in Charlaine Harris' "other" series, I'd been looking forward to the release of GRAVE SECRET ever since finishing the excellent An Ice Cold Grave two years ago. Entirely different from her Sookie Stackhouse series, the Harper books are gritty mysteries with just a hint of the paranormal. I absolutely love them.

Harper and her stepbrother (and manager) Tolliver are on the road again. Having left the horrors of North Carolina behind them once and for all, they're headed to Texas to check in with their little sisters. With the disappearance of her sister Cameron eight years ago, their family dissolved. Harper went into foster care, Tolliver to live with his older brother Mark, and the little girls went to their Aunt Iona and Uncle Hank's in Texas. Over the years Harper and Tolliver made it a point to stay in touch with their siblings, despite their aunt and uncle's deep disapproval of their lifestyle and Harper's way of earning a living. This particular visit is unexpectedly prolonged when Tolliver's jailbird father is released from prison and shows up full of remorse and wanting to reconnect with his children. At the same time, Harper finds a few more dead people than she bargained for on her latest case, sending shock waves through the family of the deceased. As old memories threaten to overtake the careful peace these two have constructed, Harper and Tolliver find themselves caught between family, clients, and the law.

I sank back into this world as if no time at all had passed since my last visit. There's something about these two characters and the mature way they've gone about reclaiming their lives after the horror of their childhoods that just fills my empty spaces. Harper and Tolliver accept that they are all each other has in such a matter-of-fact way, with such stoic integrity, it pulls at my heartstrings. I read each book hoping nothing happens to them they won't be able to recover from, looking forward to each interaction, enjoying that tense, dark reality with which Harris surrounds her characters. GRAVE SECRET lived up to expectations on more than one level. Harper and Tolliver's relationship never falters even as they find the truth about their past is even more heinous than they believed it to be. I found myself chanting, "Don't trust him, don't trust him" over and over throughout the book, on the edge of my seat worrying about them. I liked how Harper was forced to deal with some things alone in this one. I liked that Harris didn't ease up at all when it came to what actually went down in that trailer in Texarkana. This series has remained refreshingly consistent over the course of four books. And, despite the fact that several overarching plot threads are wrapped up in this volume, I would happily read as many books as she'd like to write about Harper and Tolliver. Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series is by far the more famous of the two, and I love it, but I find myself gravitating toward these more serious, quietly compelling mysteries. Highly recommended.

Reading order: Grave Sight, Grave Surprise, An Ice Cold Grave, and GRAVE SECRET

Charlaine Harris shows off awsome talent in this mystery that deals with drug addiction, parental abuse, extreme child abuse and a missing and a dead baby. These are mighty horrible subjects that she is dealing with and she also uses Harper to deal with the after effects of multiple abuse. This is a touching, sorrowful but excelllent mystery and pulls together the mystery of Harper and her family and Tolliver and how he deals with what is going on with him and his abuse as a child. This is a haunting story, an excellent mystery and a peek into the world of the abused child and how it does not have to be the end of the world. I have heard that this is the end of the Harper novels and I certainly hope not since I have grown to love her and her world but I will say this , "You will not forget Harper Connelly in a hurry".

Another book in the Harper Connelly mystery series. I love this series as it combines mystery with a woman that can read dead people and find dead people. Harper and her step-brother Tolliver travel around the country as they are hired to find out what happened to loved ones and how they died. Harper was struck by lightning when she was a teen and every since she can read the dead. In the other books we seen a Harper that needed taken care of and Tolliver did that for her. We got to see them fall in love with each other and face the "ick" factor that a lot of people had when they found out they were a couple. We also learned about their combined family and the hell they grew up in and in this book there is closure for both Harper and Tolliver with the answer to why their sister Cameron disappeared so many years before and how Tolliver's brother and father played into that. We also discover that a sister they thought was theirs is really a baby that was born under mysterious conditions. It is a real page turner and I read it in one setting.

I really like this series and (like many other readers) was a little surprised that this was the end. The main plots throughout the series all came together and were resolved a little too quickly & neatly. I actually felt like Cameron's ending (the missing sister) was pretty much a sell-out. It's like Harris went 100% for the surprise, without considering just how far-fetched it really was. The confession seemed to come out of nowhere, with very little prompting from anyone. And is it just me, or shouldn't Harper have found the body instead - since that's what this series is all about...? Which, incidentally, she reads graves only once in this book which is just a lame way to end a series primarily focused on her talent.
The Harper/Tolliver romance was reduced to casual acts of fellatio and disgusted reactions from the people around them [when finding out that "brother & sister" are in love]. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to sexual acts in books, I just felt that their relationship became shallow and pathetic (Harper just moaning about how much she depends on Tolliver). Unfortunately I found myself not minding if Harper & Manuel got together just to read about some real emotions & excitement. Overall, this book was entertaining but definitely disappointing if you are a fan of the series.
Shame on you Charlaine, for rushing an ending to this series to focus on selling filler/compilation Sookie Stackhouse books instead of any kind of satisfying novel in this or any other of your series (including Sookie).