Grave Sight (Gollancz S.F.)

Grave Sight is the first book in the Harper Connelly series by American author, Charlaine Harris. After being struck by lightning at fifteen, Harper Connolly is endowed with a special talent: she can find dead people and tell how they died. Life hasn’t been particularly kind to Harper, so she charges to use this talent, needing to make a living somehow, even if most people find this distasteful. With her step-brother and support system, Tolliver Lang, she comes to Sarne, a small town in the Ozarks, to find a missing local teenager, which she does with efficiency and respect. But it seems that someone in this small, somewhat incestuous community is unhappy about what Harper has revealed. Soon enough, Tolliver is in jail on a trumped-up charge and Harper fears for her own safety. In this foray into the paranormal, Harris has created a likeable if damaged heroine, an appealing sidekick and a cast of typical small-town characters. The dialogue is snappy and the plot has plenty of twists that, whilst entirely credible, will keep the reader guessing to the end. In this instalment, Harper is threatened, shot at, made love to and attacked. This is an excellent mystery and readers who enjoy this novel will look forward to the second book in the series, Grave Surprise.