Grave Surprise (Harper Connelly Mystery, Book 2)
by Charlaine Harris
After reading and loving Grave Sight, the first book in Charlaine Harris’ Harper Connelly series, I eagerly dove into Grave Surprise expecting another clever mystery and looking forward to getting to know Harper and Tolliver better. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get either out of this second Harper Connelly mystery.
Not to say that I didn’t enjoy the story, or that I had any problems with how the characters were portrayed – but I guessed the killer pretty much the moment they were introduced, and we weren’t provided with much new information about Harper and Tolliver. Rather than adding to what we already knew about the step-siblings, Grave Surprise merely seemed to recap what we learned about them in the first novel.
Despite the lack of character development, and my quick assumption as to who the killer was, I had no trouble finishing the story and still found it an enjoyable read. However, it does seem that certain aspects of the story (trying to stay spoiler-free here) are heading in a direction that I don’t think I’m going to like. I still plan on reading An Ice Cold Grave, the third (and at this point last) volume in this series to see if I’m in fact correct in my suspicions as to where this particular part of the story is heading. Stay tuned for further thoughts on this and other things in An Ice Cold Grave.
