It's been a while since I've read something that falls more on the mystery side of things, so I enjoyed reading this. It kept my interest and I read it fairly quickly. I also enjoyed this better than the first book because I was feeling a little less annoyed at some of the other characters involved. There was less of a small minded small town vibe and while people still gave Harper a hard time over her talent, Harper and Tolliver managed to give as much as they got, even getting some apologies in the process. Which made me feel better. I also felt that if you read this book before book 1, you'd be OK, Harris went over Harper and Tolliver's pasts again in this book, so you wouldn't be missing anything. Meanwhile, there was some progress in Harper and Tolliver's relationship with their little sisters and something else which I guessed was coming from the first book. Besides that their characters stayed fairly consistent to what they were like in book 1 - Harper really intriuges me.. again, that half vulnerable, half hard thing. Anyway, if you liked book one, I'd recommend this one.

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I was so far down on the wish list for this book that I decided I'd just have to buy a copy--you know, pay actual money to read it. What a concept! (Luckily I had a $10 gift certificate to Amazon.com.)

So I bought it and read it the day after it arrived, since I didn't get to open the mail until after 10 pm that night. It reads quickly and is a lot of fun. Not funny, but entertaining in a thoughtful sort of way.

First, read #1 in the series. You absolutely must, before you tackle this one.

The thing that makes Charlaine Harris books so interesting and so believable is that she just adds one little fantasy element and then makes sure the rest of the story follows logically and inevitably from that one surreal premise. As we follow Harper Connelly around as she "reads" graves to discern who the occupant is how and how the unfortunate corpse died, everything seems normal. The woo-woo element is workaday routine rather than something to be held up and wondered at. I like that.

This story proceeds logically to its end. There was one side plot element introduced near the end that disturbed both me and my wife (she read the book the day after I did), but it is certainly a fair complication to enter the ongoing series story line. We just don't like it!

Anyway, if you can wait through the wish list, give this one a read. It's quite enjoyable.

And, yes, we put our copy into the mail to another PBSer on the third day after it arrived.

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