Harper Connelly series by Charlaine Harris
Grave Sight, Grave Surprise, An Ice Cold Grave and Grave Secret
Gollancz paperbacks, from $19.99 to $32.99
We in the BH&G office can't get enough of author Charlaine Harris. We've been passing the Sookie Stackhouse novels around for ages and now the True Blood DVD is doing the rounds. And my wonderful friend at Hachette just sent in the Sookie short story book plus all four books in another series of Charlaine's. And not just that, but one of the books was actually signed by good old Charlaine! I think I actually did the bookworm's dance of joy at that point. (And yes, we do call her Charlaine, we feel like we know her.)

So I devoured all four and can I just say that when it comes to well-written popular page-turning paranormal fiction, Charlaine's got it going on. Harper Connelly, the heroine of the 'grave' books as I call them, has a unique ability - she can find bodies and tell you how they died. But unlike telepathic Sookie, Harper wasn't born with her talent. She acquired it after being struck by lightning at the age of 15.


And when I say find bodies, I don't mean hocus pocus psychic crap. I mean that she literally feels a buzzing that tells her where the bodies are buried. And if she stands on the grave or touches the dead person, Harper relives their last few moments along with them. Her philosophy is that the dead who aren't snug in their own graves want to be found.

Harper has put her lightning-given talent to practical and profitable use. She and her stepbrother Tolliver travel around the country, taking on bone-locating and grave-reading jobs. Given the nature of their work, it's not surprising the two of them get tangled up in murder cases with alarming regularity. And with their dark history thrown in the mix - drug-addicted parents, a sister who went missing in high school and troubled half sisters - these books are wonderful whodunnits with a paranormal twist.