The last of the Harper Connolly novels, alas. If you've only read the Sookie Stackhouse series, you might be surprised by the much darker tone of this series. Sookie tends to put a positive spin on everything - danger is exciting and fun! Harper has a much more dour outlook on life and this series reflects it back to the reader,and it certainly doesn't shy away from potentially controversial topics. My favorite of the series, for the record, was the last novel: An Ice Cold Grave. The story hung together better and was more about the mystery Harper had gotten sucked into whereas this one dealt more with the personal lives of Harper and Tolliver, clearing up established mysteries such as what had happened to Harper's sister Cameron, dealing with their less than ideal relations (and their new relationship!) as well as tying up loose ends. While Grave Secret is a fully formed book on it's own, it almost feels like Harris lost interest in the series, or found it too difficult to write and wanted to wrap it up as quickly and as neatly as possible. I rather wish she'd held out for a few more books. It took her a while, but Harper really grew on me, and I wanted to see how Manfred turns out.