It weakened her physically and drained her emotionally. It set her apart, linking her more intimately to the dead than the living. It created a bond between her and her not-brother. I keep going back to the lightning bolt that struck Harper in her teens. I won’t give away the plot, but by the end of the series, I had understood that Charlaine Harris is showing us that real bravery is making the most of the hand your are dealt and real love is about being willing to give everything you have for someone else.

Harper’s character is what makes these books memorable and sets them apart from other paranormal detective stories. I think this was a brave and good decision by Charlaine Harris. The final book has a good who-dunnit plot that gets side-lined by what-happened-to-Harper-and-what-is-she-going-to-do-about-it.

Harper Connelly’s struggle to come to terms with her past, make the best of her strange talent and find a place for herself in the future holds these four books together.Īs the books progress, the balance between focusing on the death Harper Connelly is involved with (she has a talent for being able to find the bodies of the dead and then see their final moments) and her personal history (abusive, drug addicted parents, abducted elder sister, relationship with the man she grew up thinking of as her brother but to whom she is not related) shifts in favour of resolving Harper’s own conflicts. “Grave Secret”, concludes the Harper Connelly series of four books.

Harper connelly series