Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris

Grave Sight
by Charlaine Harris
Berkeley Prime Crime Books, 2005

This is the debut novel for a brand new series. The heroine is Harper Connelly, a woman with a special gift. Ever since she was struck by lightning at the age of fifteen, Harper has been able to sense the dead. She knows where they are. With the help of her step-brother Tolliver, she hires herself to people who want or need to find the bodies of those who have disappeared. And though she can't speak with the dead, she can sense their last moments before death and know how they died.

When Harper and Tolliver are hired to come to the tiny town of Sarne, Arkansas to find the body of a missing girl, they find themselves under attack, both from a mysterious assailant with something to hide and from fundamentalist townsfolk who think her ability is evil. And someone is willing to kill to get rid of Harper.

This is a tightly written, quick-paced thriller that leaves the reader wanting more. Readers who enjoy the now popular subgenre of "modern urban magic" will find it highly satisfying, and Charlaine Harris fans will definitely want to give it a try, though it is very different from her other recent books, the light-hearted Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire series. It's closer in tone to Harris's previous series featuring Lily Bard set in the town of Shakespeare, Arkansas.