Grave Secret

Gollancz (2009)
ISBN: 9780575085541
$29.99
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Reviewed by Tehani Wessely, Oct 2009


Protagonist Harper Connelly is an unlikely hero — most people who pay her to do what she’s good at don’t believe her, even though they hire her to do a job. What does she do? She finds dead people. Struck by lightning at fifteen, Harper is left with a legacy of scars, some residual pain, and an unusual talent, which she and her step-brother — now lover — make a living from, travelling the country to find those missing, presumed dead, and sometimes being paid to divine how people died. In this, the fourth book in an unusual and quite compelling paranormal mystery series, Harper slowly learns that the case she has taken is somewhat closer to home than she could ever have expected, and it will change her life forever.

I’ve really enjoyed the Grave books, by the same author who writes the books that the supernova smash hit TV series True Blood is based on. I’m far more impressed with the Grave series overall than I ever was with Sookie Stackhouse, with its ever-growing cast of characters and twisting plot that really never seemed to go anywhere (although to be fair, the Sookie stories still manage to be a good light read all the same!). Grave Secret seems to be a finishing point for the series — all the loose plot point ends have been tied (in ways I never once predicted!) and it doesn’t seem like there’s much new ground that Harris can take her characters over without becoming repetitive. I’d like to see Harper’s travels finish with Grave Secret, while the characters are still interesting and the plot and worldbuilding make sense.

Grave Secret had some ups and downs for me. The main down was probably the way the relationship between Harper and Tolliver is written. It seemed to lack a little oomph in many ways, and it almost felt like Harris was writing it in as inoffensive way as possible, with concern for the squick factor of their step-sibling status. This resulted, to me, in the relationship falling flat, and I became uncomfortable in the scenes where this aspect was prevalent — the sex scenes, which Harris usually does so well, were bland and pretty much glossed over, and while I sort of understand the reasoning, it almost begs the question of why bother with crossing into a possibly taboo area, if you’re not going to deal with it!

Otherwise though, the book was pretty well-paced, the suspense aspect was well-drawn, as has been the case throughout the series - and is one of its primary positives - and the ending was neither predictable nor unfulfilling. Some of the characterization was perhaps a little less round than in previous books, but the story worked nonetheless. I zoomed through reading it, which, to me, is always a good sign of a good read. I wouldn’t recommend reading this as a standalone, although it’s certainly readable that way. However, you’d kick yourself after, because you’d want to go back and read the others, and knowing how it ends is not nearly so satisfying then!