“Grave Surprise,” by Charlaine Harris

FM's ratings:

          1. Premise 10
          2. Prose 9
          3. Plot 9
          4. Characters 9
          5. Overall 9

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Another fascinating read by my favorite lady author!  This is the second book in the Harper Connelly series, Harris’ shortest series (except for the new Midnight, Texas series, which she’s two books into) with only four books.  The last one was copyrighted 2009, so this series is probably finished.  The plot twists in this book are, perhaps, even more unexpected due to the subdued, almost morose tone of voice of the heroine, Harper Connelly.  With such a low-key personality, there’s risk of the narrative bogging down, but the author side-steps that easily. The attraction to Harper is, of course, her supernatural ability to locate corpses and decipher how they met their ends.  Contrast this to Dean Koontz’s Odd Thomas, who actually sees dead people and even communicates with them non-verbally.  Harper’s is a much more subtle ability, though every bit as difficult to deal with, and she and her brother are actually making a business of it.  She can see HOW they died, but not WHO the murderer was, which makes all the difference in plotting these ingenious murder mysteries.  Each of Charlaine Harris’ books is amazing in a different way.  This one has a special charm of its own, and I am looking forward to books 3 and 4!