Friday, January 18, 2008

Grave Sight

Photobucket


Since I have missed so many naps this week, due to blogging, reading, watching movies, etc., I guess I just had to catch up this morning. Right after I had my coffee and worked a couple of crossword puzzles (I do the ones in the Democrat-Gazette and the Washington Post), I just couldn't keep my eyes open another minute, so I had a nice morning nap from about 10:45 till noon. Then, I had lunch and finished reading my latest cozy.

"Grave Sight", by Charlaine Harris, is the first in a new series. There's no telling how many series' this woman writes. I only know of three, one with a main character who is a vampire. I've never read the Vampire series, but I think I'll try it, since I enjoy the other two so much.

In "Grave Sight", the main characters are Parker and her stepbrother, Tolliver. Parker finds dead people. Wait! Wait! Don't leave! This is a GOOD BOOK! Have a little tolerance.

Seems Parker was hit by lightning when she was a child, and it left her with the capacity to locate people who have disappeared, but only if they are dead, and only if they haven't been kidnapped and taken out of their local areas.

Do you remember playing that game where someone hides something and you have to find it, and they let you know how close or far away you are by screaming, "You're getting hot!" or "You're getting cold!"? Well, this is like that only different.

She has to be close enough to the corpse to pick up vibes from it. They can't call to her from the next county or the opposite coast or from say, France, you know. So, she's pretty limited in the cases she can take, and has to advertise by word of mouth, of course. I mean, really, what would YOU think if you picked up the newspaper and saw, "Is your crazy old aunt missing from the home? Well, if you can tell me when she wandered off from the home and where she might have gone, I can find her, but only if she's dead."

Naturally, she has to travel a lot, so her stepbrother goes everywhere with her and kind of takes care of her and the business details. She's pretty sensitive and quirky, and wouldn't you be? She's afraid of storms because she has a feeling that one day lightning will hit her again and take away her "gift", and there goes her career.

It's not easy being her, because even though people beg her to find their loved ones, they always end up being all freaked out and turn on her, and so do the local law enforcement people. Many times, they come around to the notion that she is in league with the Devil, so they decide not to pay her. Other times, her clients just decide she's too weird, and try to stiff her. She picked up on those deadbeat excuses early in the game, though, and like the lawyer who gets his fee in advance of the possibility that his client will end up in the pokey, she always gets her pay up front, and Tolliver hot-foots it to the bank and cashes it before she starts her search. And, they always have to leave town in a hurry, apparently.

This was a fun read, and I'll add this series to my "must read" list.

What with all this writing, her husband, three children, three dogs and a duck, I'll bet ol' Charlaine never gets a nap.

13 comments:

Kell said...

This spooky! I just finished that book! I liked it, too. I don't know how she writes all these series and make them all entertaining. I can't even think of a post for my blog!

anyway, I just go the second one from the library today. I'm interested to see where it will go.

Newt said...

I like her books, they are fun reads. A great escape.

lucylocket said...

I liked it, too. It was just weird enough without going to far. I also like her other books.

katy said...

not read any of hers but will be looking for this one in the library thank you

Cazzie!!! said...

I have to go borrow it from the library now..even the name Charlaine is interesting on its own!

Betty said...

kell: Great minds. I'm going to get the next one in my next Amazon.com order.

newt: I like her books more and more, as I read them.

lucylocket: I just don't know how she writes so many so quickly, even with good "formulas".

katy: You might also like her books with titles like "Shakespeare's Counselor". These are more mainstream, but also good.

cazzie: She's one of our Arkansas writers, and I always like to support the local talent.

DirkStar said...

Sounds like a very good read.

Uh, I had a very rough night last night and could sure use a hug...

Betty said...

dirk: OK. ((())) Is that a hug?

Doc said...

I need to check that out and add to my growing must read list. Thanks Betty!!

Joan said...

I've actually read one of the books in this series although, for the life of me, I cant remember if this is the one. I do remember it being a nice fun read and that's what's important!

Nancy said...

Hi Betty,

Thanks for the tip. I love most of the books you recommend so I will see if our library has this one.

Chancy said...

Betty
Your morning nap sounds delicious. I must need some naps or I may have a bad case of just plain lazy. I had some hip pain and I made myself sit around for over a week while I took Aleve to try and cure it. Now I am too sedentary to shoot.
I will try a nap tomorrow and perhaps that will get me out of my rut. Or it could be the cold weather here in Atlanta.

cheers
Janet
aka Chancy

Betty said...

doc: Her books are a lot of fun.

joan: This book is the first in a new series. There is another one out in paperback, now, and I noticed there's one out in hard bound.

nancy: Hope you enjoy it.

chancy: I love my naps.