If there is one author who makes me sound like a broken record, it’s Charlaine Harris. I loved her Aurora Teagarden series, I loved her Sookie Stackhouse series, and unsurprisingly- I liked her Harper Connolly series. I reviewed the four books in the omnibus separately (1, 2, 3, 4), but I’ve finally put together my series review, where I tell you a few things I thought about the series as a whole.
Harper Connelly has always been unique: ever since she was struck by lightning she’s had the ability to locate the dead. She can sense the final location of a person who’s passed, and share their very last moment. The way Harper sees it, she’s providing a service to the dead while bringing some closure to the living – but she’s used to most people treating her like a blood-sucking leech.
She does what she can to put her unique ability to good use, with the aid of her step-brother Tolliver, but it’s not always easy. Her cases can be heart-wrenching, complex – and sometimes, if someone would rather the body wasn’t found, they can even even be dangerous…
The Premise
The premise was what originally drew me towards this series although, admittedly, Charlaine Harris could write a VHS manual and I’d want to read it. Harper is able to sense the dead, and when she finds them, she can see their final moments. I love a paranormal story that’s a little different and I’ve never read anything like that before. Plus, the living characters can be just as interesting in how the death affected them. As Harper points out; The dead could wait forever, but the living were always urgent.
The Romance
This is the part that I wasn’t as much of a fan of. It’s no secret that the romance in this series is, at best, semi-incestuous. You can write it however you want, but the majority of people are always going to find that a bit icky (a word borrowed from an interview Harris herself did about the couple), even if it’s ‘just’ step-siblings. I try not to judge but no thank you.
The Writing
This wasn’t Charlaine Harris’s usual. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a complete shake up, but it felt weaker. I loved that she took the opportunity to talk about some of Americas problems, while Harper faced serial killers, rapists and torturers along with the run-of-the-mill murderers. But the character development and the actual mysteries wasn’t up to her usual standard. I actually find it really interesting that this series was written a few years after the Lily Bard mysteries, which I’m currently reading. They both deal with dark subjects but Lily feels much more real- of course, she doesn’t see dead people so…
Overall, this was very much a three star series for me. Not bad by any means! Readable and fun. Just not the high level that I usually put Charlaine Harris at and I didn’t immediately want to jump into the next book.
I couldn’t fathom people who longed for the past. They weren’t thinking about the absence of antibiotics, that was for sure.
Imogen's Typewriter. 