An Ice Cold Grave
Harper Connelly Mystery, Book #3
by Charlaine Harris
Over the last five years, several teenage boys have disappeared from their normal lives in Doraville, North
Carolina. Abandoned trucks and personal items mark the boys’ last whereabouts, but the police claim the boys are
runaways. The heartbroken families doubt their boys willingly left home. When the latest case stumps local
police, well-to-do Twyla Cotton, grandmother of a missing boy, spearheads a fund to hire Harper Connelly, a
psychic who can find the dead.
Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver use her lightning-induced, body-locating abilities to make their
living. Their cases are evenly divided between the searches for a body and the cemetery readings on cause of death.
Harper and Tolliver meet with Twyla and newly appointed Sheriff Rockwell to discuss the case. On an icy lot,
Harper locates Twyla’s grandson’s body quickly. Harper’s reaction to the boy’s horrific death is compounded when
she finds seven more murdered teenagers in the same makeshift graveyard. She collapses, feeling the pain of
the boys’ tortured deaths. The discovery flips a missing persons case into a serial killer investigation, and the
press descends on the small town. Harper wants to put thousands of miles between her and the monster who caused
the boys’ unspeakable torture. Her would-be flight from town stalls as she fights off mysterious attackers and
the suspicions of the police.
In An Ice Cold Grave, author Charlaine Harris writes of a young psychic woman who makes the most of
her past tragic events. This is the first book I have read from Harris, and I enjoyed the layers of conflict in
the down-home, lively characters. Harper is a believable character, fighting fears in the midst of extraordinary
circumstances. The relationship between Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver explodes in this book, though this
change underlines the story from the beginning. Readers should note the content warnings including disturbing
themes, like child sexual abuse and torture. Harris conjures up strong characters, throws them in a pot, and
stirs in scary adventures. Readers will enjoy the troubled and talented Harper and the twists of good and evil
characters. |
The Book |
Berkeley Crime / Penguin |
September 25, 2007 |
Hardcover |
978-0-425-21729-0 |
Mystery / paranormal |
More at Amazon.com |
Excerpt |
NOTE: (explicit content warnings - language, sex, violence - child abuse, both physical and sexual) |
The Reviewer |
Jennifer Akers |
Reviewed 2007 |
NOTE: |
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