Grave Surprise
I’m Kim Alexander and this is Fiction Nation. The book is Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris. Before I go on, I should say that I’m a great big fangirl of Ms. Harris — in fact when I started working on Fiction Nation, it was one of her books that became my very first script. So there’s a soft spot in my heart.
Ms. Harris is perhaps best known for the Southern Gothic Vampire series featuring psychic barmaid and small town Louisiana native Sookie Stackhouse. Exciting news for Sookie’s many admirers — it’s been picked up as an HBO Original Series, to be called True Blood and adapted by Alan Ball (6 Feet Under). That’ll be going on the Tivo season pass.
In Grave Surprise, we leave the vampires aside for the moment, although the locale is still in the rural deep south. It looks like it’s shaping up as a mystery with some supernatural elements, rather than supernatural creatures solving mysteries. This is the second book in the series. I missed the first, Grave Sight, but didn’t have too much trouble keeping up. Harper Connelly is a young woman with a seriously troubled past and some unusual problems — she was struck by lightning, and it left her with the ability to locate the dead, and then tell you how they met their fate. (At least, we assume Harper got this as a result of the strike, but in Ms. Harris’ world, there are always more questions than answers.) In fact, that’s how she and her brother Tolliver make their living. (How would you fit that on a business card?) Well, Tolliver’s actually her stepbrother. That’s another story. Tolliver serves as bodyguard and sounding board to the rather fragile Harper, and seems like the closest thing to normal in her extended and fairly unpleasant family. The pleasure of Ms. Harris’ work lies in her leisurely pace, and the slowly unfolding details of both the main characters and the minor ones. I know Harper’s feelings for her stepbrother are going to get a workout, and we’ll certainly find out more about her mysteriously missing sister Cameron. Ms. Harris dedicates this book to lightning strike survivors, she’s clearly done quite a bit of research on the topic and I look forward to seeing where she goes with that. If we look at her track record, we can see that with just two books in this series, she’s barely gotten warmed up. In fact, my only request is that she manages to write about Sookie when she’s not writing about Harper!
This just in: Okay, it was 3 minutes ago, but still. According to charlaineharris.com, All Together Dead, the next Sookie Stackhouse book, will be out in May of 2007.
I’m Kim Alexander and this is a Fiction Nation minute. The book is Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris.
We know Ms. Harris from the Southern Gothic Vampire series, but in this new mystery, the dead mostly stay in the ground. It’s the story of Harper Connelly, a young woman with a troubled past, struck by lightning and as a result, able to locate the dead and tell you how they died. Like my grandma used to say, from this you can make a living? In Grave Surprise, Harper travels to Memphis to demonstrate her unusual ability, but what she finds in the grave is not what anyone expected — except for the murderer! While the main mystery is, well, mysterious, you go to Ms. Harris’ books for the rich detailing of Southern life, the many interesting background characters, and for getting to know an unusual group of people. I’m glad to meet Harper and her friends. Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris. I’m Kim Alexander and this is Fiction Nation on Book Radio, SiriusXM Channel 80.
I’m Kim Alexander and this is a Fiction Nation minute. The book is Grave Surprise, the second in the new mystery series by Charlaine Harris.
Harper Connelly is a poor Southern girl with a troubled past, struggling to deal with the aftereffects of a lightning strike. It left her with headaches and scars, and a strange ability — she can locate the dead and tell you what happened to them. In Grave Surprise, the physically fragile but tough-minded Harper, and her stepbrother and traveling companion Tolliver, go to Memphis to demonstrate her ability with unexpected results. The mystery goes back to the first book — Grave Sight — which I missed but didn’t have any trouble keeping up. As usual, Ms. Harris fills her book with a cast of interesting background characters, and given the way she writes in multiples, we’ll get to find out about them all. Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris. I’m the creeped out Kim Alexander on Fiction Nation on Book Radio, SiriusXM Channel 80.
I’m Kim Alexander and this is a Fiction Nation minute. The book is Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris.
Usually I talk about new and upcoming writers, but Ms. Harris is a favorite of mine, and it’s my show. In Grave Surprise, a mystery series with some supernatural elements, we meet Harper Connelly. She’s still coming to terms with her seriously messed up childhood, at the same time as learning to deal with the effects of the lightning strike that didn’t kill her, but left her able to locate dead people and tell you what happened to them. She’s treated by the police and media as a fraud at best and a vulture at worst, and her weariness at having to justify and explain herself is clear, as is her compulsion to help the families of the dead find answers. Grave Surprise takes Harper and her stepbrother and traveling companion to Memphis, and as in most of Ms. Harris’ books, for every answer, there’s a new question. Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris. I’m Kim Alexander on Fiction Nation on Book Radio, SiriusXM Channel 80.
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