Grave Secret (A Harper Connelly Mystery, #4) by Charlaine Harris

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May 09, 2009

M— rated it:

bookshelves: reviewed

Read in November, 2009

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Jun 16, 2009

Robin rated it:

Love this series with Harper Connelly but understand this will be her last book.

Update: I have followed this author for years, reading the Aurora Teagarden mysteries until I tired of them, followed by the Lily Bard series, which was ended by the author. I was excited when she started the Harper Connelly series and enjoyed the first three and was disappointed when I heard this would be her last, but after reading it, decided it's best that she put Harper out to pasture.

H...more

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Feb 19, 2010

Cerri rated it:

(review of other edition)

This was, in some ways, the book, I had been waiting for. We finally get to find out, what really happened to Harper's sister Cameron.

(spoiler?)

I'm not sure, if I like the explanation, though. I'm rather glad, it wasn't some random person, mind you. But this all seemed to come about rather suddenly. I would really like to know, if this story had been planned before this book. Looking back on it, we got to know about Mark's devotion to his father early o...more

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Jan 31, 2010

Gail rated it:

Read in January, 2010

The perfect book for a long wait at the hospital with interesting story and characters, not too simple and not too complex. A perfect mark.

Harper Connelly was struck by lightening as a teenager and now is able to find corpses and tap into their feelings at the last moment of their death. Her stepbrother Tolliver -- who is really not related to her and is now her lover --manages her career and takes care of her. They are hired by a rich Texan family to find out how their rich grand...more

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Jan 30, 2010

Larissa rated it:

(review of isbn 0575085541)

bookshelves: own

Read in January, 2010

Harper and Tolliver were heading to Dallas. This was not a business trip, it was personal. A visit to their sisters, and Tolliver's brother. However if making a quick stop off was going to make a very rich Lizzie Joyce very happy and also put some money in their hands then what is the harm in that?

Just as things had started to come together for Harper and Tolliver, their past comes back to haunt them. Although they live with the scares of their past everyday, this time their past has...more

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Jan 12, 2010

Lish Mcbride rated it:

bookshelves: mystery

Owns a copy — Read in January, 2010

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Jan 04, 2010

Ellen rated it:

bookshelves: ghosts, mystery

Read in December, 2009

I've become bored with the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series (TMS--too many sequels), but I'm still eager to open a new Harper Connelly mystery. The two main characters, Harper and her manager/step brother/romantic interest Tolliver, are survivors. Harper survived a lightning strike that left her with the ability to track down dead people and sense the last moments of dead people. She makes her living as a freelance body dowser, traveling cross-country with Tolliver. But Harris does her best wo...more

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Dec 27, 2009

Harper rated it:

bookshelves: mystery-suspense, paranormal, series

Read in December, 2009

recommends it for: mystery fans

I've seen mention that there are supposed to be more books in this series, but Mrs. Harris has confirmed on her website that this book is the last Harper Connelly book. She says "never say never," but she currently doesn't intend to write any more books in this series. Just wanted to clarify that for the people who are assuming there are more books to come.

As for the book itself, I think it was a weak conclusion to the series. Other people have said it, but there really is...more

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Dec 19, 2009

Katy-Del rated it:

Read in December, 2009

Harper Connelly is a woman with an unusual talent. She can find dead people and sense how these people died. She was raised in a chaotic household that fell apart while she was in high school after her sister went missing.

Harper and her buisness partner/ step brother/ boyfriend hire out her services to people looking for missing people who are presumed dead and by people who want to know for sure how someone died.

Sometimes these situations bring out details that are...more

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Dec 19, 2009

Aaron rated it:

Harper Connelly makes her living by traveling around southern states helping to solve mysteries. She has the ability to not only locate bodies but to get a sense of how the individuals died because she can relive their final moments when she is near the body. She is joined by her stepbrother and manager Tolliver Lang. In this fourth volume in the series, they are going to be confronted with something a little closer to home.

It all starts when they are hired by the Joyce family, a wea...more Harper Connelly makes her living by traveling around southern states helping to solve mysteries. She has the ability to not only locate bodies but to get a sense of how the individuals died because she can relive their final moments when she is near the body. She is joined by her stepbrother and manager Tolliver Lang. In this fourth volume in the series, they are going to be confronted with something a little closer to home.

It all starts when they are hired by the Joyce family, a wealthy Texan oil family (think the Ewings from Dallas) to get a better understanding of what killed their grandfather Rich. It is believed that he died from a heart attack after being confronted by a snake, and their is some question as to whether or not the snake was thrown at him or whether he ran across the snake on his own.

As Harper is exploring the cemetery, she comes across the grave of Mariah Parish, a young woman who was Rich's nursemaid in the final months of his life. It was believed that she died of blood poisoning, but Harper gets the impression that she died in childbirth. This leads to a whole bunch of concerns because everyone can't help but wonder if the baby was Rich's child and how that might affect everyone's inheritance.

The Joyce's are less than thrilled with Harper's uncovering of a family controversy and basically dismiss her. This leaves Harper and Tolliver able to visit with their two youngest half-sisters. They both find it important to do so, and this visit will be a special one since it will allow them to tell the girls and Harper's aunt and uncle, who have adopted the girls, that she and Tolliver are getting married. As you can guess, this does not go well with the aunt and uncle.

Tolliver has his own family issues coming to the fore when it is learned that his father Matthew is now out of prison and living with Tolliver's older brother Marc. Matthew and Harper's mother had both had fairly respectable lives until they fell into drugs. Now, Matthew is an ex-con, and Harper's mother has died. Surprisingly, Matthew is also not quite thrilled to hear that his son will be marrying one of his stepdaughters.

The Joycess seem to not stay far from the center of the story, and before long it becomes clear that the the Connelly-Lang families has deeper ties tot he Joyces than anyone expected. The tension will lead to Tolliver getting shot in the shoulder, a detective being shot trying to protect Harper, and a series of revelations that will help reveal what happened to Harper's missing older sister Cameron as well as some other surprising family skeletons.

While Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books have become tremendously popular, particularly since HBO started a show loosely based on the books, I have always felt that Harper and her books are surprisingly overlooked. The mysteries have always been very interesting, and her talent, which she got after being struck by lightening when she was 15, adds and interesting twist.

This volume is not quite a strong, but I think it is because it is so closely tied to Harper and Tolliver's own stories. I tend to prefer my mystery books to present tales in which the mystery is not entwined with the detective. That is not to say that I didn't enjoy it. It was really interesting to finally find out the reality behind a lot of things that have been brewing in Harper and Tolliver's past. The ending felt a little rushed, but that is more because the book is moving a little slower in the earlier portions.

It was also good to have Manfred Bernardo return. Besides adding a bit of humor, he adds his own psychic talents, which he honed while traveling with his psychic grandmother for years before her death in an earlier book. Mandred and Harper definitely seem to be shifting from a younger man with a crush to a friendship/colleague relationship.

This is definitely a good addition to the series.(less)

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Dec 17, 2009

Cornerofmadness rated it:

Read in December, 2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Let me preface this review with stating I like Harris’ work. I’ve read all of her series and a few short stories in addition. The Harper/Tolliver series was a decent one (I preferred Sookie a bit but I’m a sucker for vampires, pun intended). That said, this was the worst thing I’ve ever read by her. I mean, nearly tossing the book across the room bad. It felt like she realized her deadline was in 3 weeks and cranked out anything (except the ridiculous ending had to have been plan...more
Let me preface this review with stating I like Harris’ work. I’ve read all of her series and a few short stories in addition. The Harper/Tolliver series was a decent one (I preferred Sookie a bit but I’m a sucker for vampires, pun intended). That said, this was the worst thing I’ve ever read by her. I mean, nearly tossing the book across the room bad. It felt like she realized her deadline was in 3 weeks and cranked out anything (except the ridiculous ending had to have been planned and that makes it worse).

The hardest part about doing a review for this is I can’t give you examples of why I think it’s so awful without ‘ruining the surprises.’ Before anyone thinks this is just another reviewer cheerily bashing some book, it’s honestly not that. I put up excerpts for my blog’s friend’s list and asked for their opinions (blind, I didn’t say where the quotes came from until afterward just to be sure that there wasn’t a Harris-hater in the bunch). It was unanimous; no one could believe these plot twists.

The basic plot is Harper has been asked to find out how Rich Joyce, wealthy rancher died, nearly a decade after his death. No problem until Harper also uncovers that his home nurse died in child birth (obviously setting us up to think this baby is his). Then that story gets shunted aside as we get into Harper and Tolliver’s personal lives. They were raised as brother and sister even though they’re step siblings and last book they became lovers. Obviously all their relatives are shocked at this, friends too and instead of trying to help people past it, Harper’s reactions is to be the most abrasive witch she can be. Tolliver is much more tolerable. In fact, Harper is nothing but obnoxious and rude through this whole book.

Mathew, Tolliver’s real dad, shows up, fresh from jail, supposedly rehabbed and wants back in his kids’ lives. Tolliver and Harper want none of this but Mark, the oldest does. This goes on for about 150 pages before the other subplot comes back into it. At least the flying bullets make it vaguely interesting but people had to act totally unprofessionally and stupidly to make this plot work and the Jerry Springer ending was telegraphed at least 70 pages before the end which lame as the justifications were, still strained credibility. I mean, it all starts with one random phone call to a stranger and ends here? Shakes head.

Harsh review I know. And in all honesty I was left wondering at the people reviewing this for my book club who were raving about it. This was so bad I’m not sure I’d even get the next in the series from the library, let a lone buy it. Okay, I can’t help myself. spoiler here:

What cop would come to deliver a death threat to someone and instead, let’s Harper talk him into jogging, changes in his car and leads her away from the hotel where the person threatening her knows she’s staying? No one would do this. No detective would let someone under a death threat go running around in public without at least giving her the warning first. And this isn’t the most preposterous thing that happens.
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Dec 04, 2009

Marlyn rated it:

bookshelves: mystery, paranormal

Read in November, 2009

Charlaine Harris has previously written an 8-book series about librarian Aurora Teagarden and a 5-book series about housekeeper-cum-private detective Lily Bard. Currently, besides the immensely popular Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire series, Ms. Harris writes another wonderful paranormal mystery series about Harper Connelly, who is able to find (and, to some extent, "read") dead bodies as a result of having been struck by lightning when a teen.

Harper and her step-brother...more

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Dec 02, 2009

LJ rated it:

bookshelves: contemporary_post_1945, female_author, mystery, paranormal_fantasy

Read in November, 2009

First Sentence: “All right,” said the straw-haired woman in the denim jacket.

Harper Connelly can see the dead and experience their death. She and her step-brother (no blood relation)/lover, Tolliver, come to Texas at the request of a member of the wealthy Joyce family. Not only was dad’s death as innocent as they thought, but his caretaker died, not of a burst appendix, but from childbirth. The question is raised as to who was the baby’s father and where it the child now?...more

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Nov 20, 2009

Elie Nicewonger rated it:

Read in November, 2009

My thoughts...Let me start by saying if you have not read any books in the series, you need to go back and read Grave Sight. This series is different from the Sookie books. I would describe it as a mystery with a hint of paranormal. You may want to cover your eyes here, while I will not give away any Grave Secret spoilers, previous events may be disclosed.

Grave Secret picks right up where Ice Cold Grave left off. They start off on a usual job assignment that lands them in a gra...more

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Nov 10, 2009

Angie rated it:

bookshelves: good-uns

Read in November, 2009

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 ...more 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(less)

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Nov 03, 2009

Babs rated it:

Read in November, 2009

Excellent. I loved it as much as I loved the first three. Though, I hate to see it go, I guess I understand. For some reason, I was never "eaked" or "grossed out" over the entire Harper/Tolliver situation. Never. I saw it from book 1, and I waited for emotions and feelings to surface between the 2 of them, which, finally occured in book 3. It made sense. They are all they have. As proven in nearly all the books, who can they really trust? Each other. The experiences they have...more

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Nov 02, 2009

Becky rated it:

Grave Secret is the fourth Harper Connelly paranormal mystery from Charlaine Harris. For the uninitiated, Harper Connelly, after suffering a lightning strike at the age of 15, has the ability to sense the dead and to know how they died. She and her brother--that is to say, her stepbrother, Tolliver, who is also her manager and business partner--make a living by traveling around the country consulting for local police departments and people who want to learn the truth about the death of their l...more Grave Secret is the fourth Harper Connelly paranormal mystery from Charlaine Harris. For the uninitiated, Harper Connelly, after suffering a lightning strike at the age of 15, has the ability to sense the dead and to know how they died. She and her brother--that is to say, her stepbrother, Tolliver, who is also her manager and business partner--make a living by traveling around the country consulting for local police departments and people who want to learn the truth about the death of their loved ones.

At the end of last installment, An Ice Cold Grave, Harper and her brother--um, stepbrother--had finally acknowledged the nature of their love for one another, overcome the ick factor, and become partners in all senses of the word. In this latest, everything they do is informed by this development in their lives--they're telling everyone they know, and most everyone is as skeeved and intrigued by the situation as I was. Some are downright disgusted, and it doesn't help matters that Harper frequently still refers to Tolliver as "my brother." And, although Harper and Tolliver don't share any blood, they do share two half sisters, the children of his father and her mother. Why, it's a regular old Southern Gothic!

Grave Secret neatly dovetails the current case, that of a wealthy Texas family that wants to learn the details of their grandfather's cause of death eight years earlier, with the trauma that drives them, the disappearance of their--rather, Harper's--sister Cameron nearly a decade before. Tolliver's father, Matthew, has been released from prison, and although his desire to connect with the son he abandoned for drugs many years earlier is both obnoxious and suspect, it helps steer the lovers closer to an understanding of the truth.

Charlaine Harris is a master craftsman, and endlessly creative (although she juggles four different series, each is distinct in tone, voice, and story from the others). She brings together the paranormal, the Gothic, and the crime aspects of her story neatly, and in a most satisfying way.(less)

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Oct 31, 2009

Grace rated it:

bookshelves: mystery, paranormal

Read in October, 2009

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 tha...more

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Oct 27, 2009

Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) rated it:

(review of other edition)

bookshelves: authors-i-ve-met, charlaine-harris, kindle, mystery

Owns a copy — Read in October, 2009

Harper Connelly and Tolliver Wells have barely recovered from their horrific experiences in North Carolina (read An Ice Cold Grave) when they decide to head to Texas to see their two little half siblings, Mariella and Gracie. They figure that it's going to be tough enough telling the girls that the two of them have gone from step siblings to being a couple, let alone the girls religious adaptive parents, Iona and Hank. On the way they stop off near where they grew up in Texarkana, to do a readin...more Harper Connelly and Tolliver Wells have barely recovered from their horrific experiences in North Carolina (read An Ice Cold Grave) when they decide to head to Texas to see their two little half siblings, Mariella and Gracie. They figure that it's going to be tough enough telling the girls that the two of them have gone from step siblings to being a couple, let alone the girls religious adaptive parents, Iona and Hank. On the way they stop off near where they grew up in Texarkana, to do a reading for a Lizzie Joyce who read about Harper and decided she couldn't rest until she thought of a reason to invite her to Clear Creek. Harper decides to throw out a few freebies for the Joyce's and Chip Moseley, the manager of their ranch and Lizzie's beau, before she get's to their grandfather, who is the reason for her visit. Harper unwittingly uncovers that not only had the Joyce's grandfather died of a heart attack induced by someone throwing a snake at him, but his caretaker had died after childbirth. Unconcerned with this bombshell they've dropped on the family, Harper and Tolliver head onto Dallas, and their own family. The reaction to Harper and Tolliver becoming a couple, and in fact becoming engaged, really shocks their family, even Tolliver's brother Mark is taken aback. This reaction on top of a multitude of other reasons, including Iona finally becoming pregnant, leads Harper to consider that perhaps her and Tolliver's dream of moving to Dallas and becoming more involved in their sister's lives is in fact unwise.

But everything takes a back seat when Tolliver's dad, Matthew, shows back up. The man who shared Harper's mother's slide into depravity. The drug addict who would willingly sell his own step-daughter to eager men. The drug addict who ruined their lives and wasn't their for them when Cameron went missing. He's been released "clean and sober" from prison, but more importantly he wants to "reconnect" with his family, surprising them on their day out skating. They desire to have nothing to do with him, making him resort to trailing them. But something worse happens...Tolliver is shot and it appears he might not have been the target. Bodies start piling up but the one body Harper hopes to find more than any other remains elusive. Will Harper even find Cameron? Also why where they attacked? Could the Joyce's case, whose missing baby is being looked into by Harper and Tolliver's old PI friend Victoria Flores, have a connection to Cameron? Was the answer to Cameron's disappearance closer than Harper even knew? And can Matthew really not be involved in all this? Thankfully Manfred shows up to land an ever eager hand.

While I will freely admit this was not my favorite in the series, which given the quality of the series is so not a slam, it was the most satisfying. Answers have been given and it all makes nice sense. Answers which you won't be hearing from these lips...or these nimbly typing fingers as the case would be. This book was far more personal then the other three, dealing with how bad their life was in the little trailer in Texarkana. Instead of an outside murder mystery plot driving the story, here the plot is driven by discovering the mysteries within these character's lives. We see more clearly then ever before the horrors of their past and how Cameron affected their lives. After the total disclosure and revelation of this book you feel like you can understand the characters better than before and that until now they were never truly formed, like something was missing. I also have to say, I loved the Joyce's. They were quite literally the Ewings of Dallas. This was like one long season of the most wonderful of shows with missing babies, hidden heirs, a murder or two and then, BAM, a kick to the gut with the fistful of answers you were waiting for. Also, I like Tolliver and all... but Harper and Manfred... hmmm... it has a certain kind of interesting allure...(less)

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Feb 27, 2010

Elki rated it:

Read in February, 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I must say that I enjoy Harris’ books. They’re fun to read, easy to absorb, and pretty funny. Having said that, I have one major gripe with the writing. The one element that makes no sense to me, are Harris’ repetitions. This is the 10th book of hers that I’ve read and it makes me cringe every time precious book space is wasted on a piece of information that has been established no more than 50 pages prior. Honestly, I understand being reminded about something like, Harpers accident…o...more

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