Grave Surprise (GOLLANCZ S.F.) Harris, Charlaine

Grave Surprise is the second book in the Harper Connelly series by American author, Charlaine Harris. Harper has been invited by a sceptical anthropology professor at Bingham College in Memphis to demonstrate her talent for determining cause of death at an old cemetery. She does well until the last grave, where she finds two bodies, the most recent burial being Tabitha Morgenstern, an eleven-year-old whom Harper had tried unsuccessfully to find in Nashville almost two years ago. Harper and Tolliver realise immediately this cannot be a coincidence. Soon they are embroiled in an investigation that attracts media attention (of the wrong sort) and have to face the distraught family. Throw into the mix a nosy PI, a single-minded FBI agent, a psychic ex-prostitute and her pierced and tattooed grandson, disbelieving police and family members with their own agendas, followed by yet another corpse in the same grave, and you have a first-rate mystery with plenty of twists and turns, a couple of red herrings and plenty of suspects. The reader learns a little more of Harper’s own history, Harper makes a startling discovery about herself and the psychic makes some personal predictions for her that the reader will do well to remember for the next instalment, An Ice Cold Grave.