Grave Surprise, Charlaine Harris, Berkley Prime Crime, $23.95.
In this outing, Harper and Tolliver have gone to Memphis at the request of a professor who has discovered the records of an old graveyard - he wants to "test" Harper to see if she's for real. Since the professor is willing to pay her, Harper is willing to do it, and as she walks through the graveyard, finding a knife fight victim here and a woman who died in childbirth there, she comes to a grave with a newer spirit inside, the spirit of an eleven year old who has been missing for over a year, and who Harper had been hired by her parents to find when she first disappeared. This is too coincidental for the police, the media, and the cranky professor, and Harper and Tolliver are stuck in Memphis for the duration. This story is told in such a matter of fact manner that even if you don't care for science fiction or ghosts you'll find yourself going right along with Harper and accepting her special "skill".
Harris is nothing if not multi-talented, however, and her (seemingly easy) skill at filling in the background with vivid secondary characters is phenomenal. Especially memorable is the astonishing Manfred, who travels with his psychic grandma, is covered with piercings and tattoos, and who Harper finds strangely alluring. But he's just a sidebar; front and center are the family of the dead girl, Tabitha Morgenstern, and the varied permutations that come from a complicated blended family. Harris also throws in a bit of social observation - it's like a little flourish thrown down by a master, which is what she is. The story is complex, relies on character, and has a good dollop of the complicated relationship between Harper and Tolliver and an additional peeling away of the layers of their troubled childhood together. This seems like a lot to cram into a concise and fast moving volume, but believe me, it fits perfectly. Brava, master.
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