Last night I started reading Charlaine Harris' newest novel, Grave Sight, and couldn't put it down. I finally did put it down, at about midnight, but only because I was yawning so hard I couldn't focus my eyes.
Harris is the author of several other series' that I enjoy--the Sookie Stackhouse "Southern Vampire" series (which I see by Ms. Harris' website may be made into a television series), the Lily Bard "Shakespeare" series, and the Aurora Teagarden librarian mysteries. The Sookie Stackhouse ones are my favorite--Sookie is a waitress at a dive in Louisiana; her sometime boyfriend is a vampire who died around Civil War time, and another close friend is a werewolf. Her boss at the bar is a shapeshifter, too, although his other persona is usually a dog. The books are a lot of fun. They're exactly what I look for, my favorite kind of book--something a little different, a little humorous, something with an "edge" that doesn't take itself too seriously.
When I saw that the new book was coming out, I assumed it was a Sookie Stackhouse mystery, so I was a little disappointed at first to find it was a new series. But I'm really loving it, and I hope she writes a lot more about these characters. The book is called Grave Sight. The protagonist, Harper Connelly, was struck by lightning when she was a teenager, and ever since, she's been able to find the dead. Police departments that have unsolved cases will call her to see if she can find a missing person, assuming that person is dead. She's no good at finding the living.
Her stepbrother Tolliver accompanies her and protects her, and it's the interplay between the two that I found most interesting. Their almost secret language, the glances that say exactly what needs to be said. A really exceptional book, I think. The first chapter is posted at Ms. Harris's website, as is the first chapter of the next (May 2006) Sookie Stackhouse novel, Definitely Dead.
I'm not doing very well on my NaNoWriMo novel this year. I've only got about 12,000 words. I'm going to try to write over the coming long weekend, but I'm pretty sure I won't reach 50,000. Which is okay. I'm not going to beat myself up about it. But I am going to try.
