A lightening strike as a teenager left Harper Connelly with a weak, spider webbed left leg and the strange ability to locate dead people. Not only is she able to find them, Harper relives their last few moments of life. It’s a highly specialized skill that is typically met with mixed feelings even by the clients who pay for her services. The families want closure but resent having to pay for it. It’s a bitter pill not made easier to swallow as Harper frequently must inform them that the deceased came to a violent end at the hand of someone they trusted. Factor in the inevitable fundamentalist views that contacting the dead is somehow devil related, therefore evil and it’s easy to see this is not an easy way to earn a living.
When Harper and her step-brother/manager Tolliver are hired to find the whereabouts of missing local girl in Sarne, Arkansas it sounded like a simple job of come in find the girl and move on to the next appointment. Harper discovers the missing teenager easily enough along with some things certain influential community members would just as soon keep covered up, things that continue getting people killed. As strangers in town, suspicion falls on Harper and her brother but with an air tight alibi and no motive the local law enforcement can’t do more then keep them from leaving Sarne. The usual animosity ramps up several notches eventually landing Tolliver in jail and unless Harper can figure out what is going on in Sarne’s twisted underbelly, she’s going to be the next victim.
Author of the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series Charlaine Harris dishes up a thoroughly entertaining murder mystery with a paranormal twist in this series debut that will leave her fans wanting more. While the rehashing of Harper’s childhood occasionally got old, overall Harris has created a couple of believable, comfortably flawed characters in a setting that anyone familiar with small town living can identify with.
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