An Ice Cold Grave

by Charlaine Harris

Book Overview

Hired to find a boy gene missing in Doraville, North Carolina, Harper Connelly and her brother Tolliver head there, only to discover that the boy was the only one left of several who had disappeared over the previous five years. All of them teenagers. All unlikely runaways. All calling for Harper. Harper soon finds them eight victims, buried in the half-frozen ground, all come to an unspeakable end. Afterward, what she most wants to do is collect...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425217299
• ISBN13: 9780425217290
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.4"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The Harper Connelly series

These are expertly written and tie into the Sookie Stackhouse and Midnight series. Since I love both these series, this completed my expectation that Mrs. Harris has written. Loved all these books.

My fave in the series.

This book stays interesting from beginning to end. I loved it the most out of all the series.

Serial Killings in South Carolina

An Ice Cold Grave (2007) is the third fantasy novel in the Harper Connelly series, following Grave Surprise. In the previous volume, Harper interrupts the killer in the midst of another murder and is almost shot. Tolliver overwhelms the murderer. Harper and Tolliver have learned and deduced most to the story and pass it on to the police. Harper has never encountered a true ghost prior to Josiah Poundstone. She arranges with Xylda Bernardo to lay his spirit. Josiah seems amazed at the thought of seeking peace, but gradually fades away. In this novel, Harper and Tolliver travel to Doraville, South Carolina, during the ice and snow of January. They have been called in to search for six youths who have become missing during the past five years. The sheriff -- Sandra Rockwell -- had been a deputy who ran against the former sheriff over his mismanagement of this issue. Yet she has not been able to discover any additional leads. The grandmother of the last missing boy suggested that Harper be used to find the bodies. After checking the police grapevine and getting a positive recommendation from a participant in a former case, Sheriff Rockwell asked for Harper to perform a search. After discussing the case with the sheriff, Harper meets with Twyla Cotton, the woman who is responsible for her involvement in the case. The sheriff provides a list of the most suspicious locales. Twyla drives Harper and Tolliver around to each site. Harper finds the bodies of eight boys -- including Twyla's grandson -- on the grounds of an abandoned house with a two-car garage off to one side. Harper marks the burial sites with red flags while Twyla calls the police. The police discover decayed bodies at each site and contact the State Bureau of Investigation to report the find. SBI agents and technicians come to Doraville to verify the identities and to gather any available evidence about the murderer. Harper is prepared to leave town when she is attacked outside the motel. In this story, Harper meets with the usual skepticism and hints of fraudulent practices. The existence of the bodies, however, proves to be irrefutable evidence of the crime and, despite their suspicions, the police cannot prove any criminal involvement by Harper. Naturally, some police -- particularly the SBI agents -- still suspect Harper of nefarious wrongdoing. Harper becomes more involved in this situation than in her previous cases. She gets to know some of the people involved and starts to like several of the individuals. Unlike previous cases, nobody -- other than the SBI agents -- tends to blame Harper for the killings and few are upset by the arcane natural of her talent. This story also has Harper becoming more troubled by her relationship with Tolliver. She is beginning to feel attracted toward him. While he is her stepbrother, they are otherwise unrelated and that is becoming rather important to her. Highly recommended for Harris fans and for anyone else who enjo

Serial Killings in South Carolina

An Ice Cold Grave (2007) is the third fantasy novel in the Harper Connelly series, following Grave Surprise. In the previous volume, Harper interrupts the killer in the midst of another murder and is almost shot. Tolliver overwhelms the murderer. Harper and Tolliver have learned and deduced most to the story and pass it on to the police. Harper has never encountered a true ghost prior to Josiah Poundstone. She arranges with Xylda Bernardo to lay his spirit. Josiah seems amazed at the thought of seeking peace, but gradually fades away. In this novel, Harper and Tolliver travel to Doraville, South Carolina, during the ice and snow of January. They have been called in to search for six youths who have become missing during the past five years. The sheriff -- Sandra Rockwell -- had been a deputy who ran against the former sheriff over his mismanagement of this issue. Yet she has not been able to discover any additional leads. The grandmother of the last missing boy suggested that Harper be used to find the bodies. After checking the police grapevine and getting a positive recommendation from a participant in a former case, Sheriff Rockwell asked for Harper to perform a search. After discussing the case with the sheriff, Harper meets with Twyla Cotton, the woman who is responsible for her involvement in the case. The sheriff provides a list of the most suspicious locales. Twyla drives Harper and Tolliver around to each site. Harper finds the bodies of eight boys -- including Twyla's grandson -- on the grounds of an abandoned house with a two-car garage off to one side. Harper marks the burial sites with red flags while Twyla calls the police. The police discover decayed bodies at each site and contact the State Bureau of Investigation to report the find. SBI agents and technicians come to Doraville to verify the identities and to gather any available evidence about the murderer. Harper is prepared to leave town when she is attacked outside the motel. In this story, Harper meets with the usual skepticism and hints of fraudulent practices. The existence of the bodies, however, proves to be irrefutable evidence of the crime and, despite their suspicions, the police cannot prove any criminal involvement by Harper. Naturally, some police -- particularly the SBI agents -- still suspect Harper of nefarious wrongdoing. Harper becomes more involved in this situation than in her previous cases. She gets to know some of the people involved and starts to like several of the individuals. Unlike previous cases, nobody -- other than the SBI agents -- tends to blame Harper for the killings and few are upset by the arcane natural of her talent. This story also has Harper becoming more troubled by her relationship with Tolliver. She is beginning to feel attracted toward him. While he is her stepbrother, they are otherwise unrelated and that is becoming rather important to her. Highly recommended for Harris fans and for anyone else who enjo

Series keeps getting better

Charlaine Harris has gelled the Harper Connelly Mysteries - The main characters have settled in and have a more three dimensional air about them - Without giving any spoilers away - Harper and her 'brother' Tolliver are asked to go to Doraville, North Carolina to help find what they presume dead bodies of at least six young men - As they have in the past, they are met with a mix of reactions - Harper can find the dead, and know what caused their deaths. When Harper helps the sheriff of Doraville, she is injured (by the killer?) and has to stay for a while. This sets Harper up to deal with whoever is doing the murders. The reader should be aware there is more vivid violence, detailed sex, and language than previous Harper books. Harris is hitting her stride with this series, and I liked this book better than her latest Sookie Stackhouse book. Harper is believable and her gift is being fine tuned. What was referred to in previous books comes to a resolution, which in itself, can be a wild predicament. It is a sound series, and a great book.

This book is my favorite so far!

I've been a fan of Harper Connelly and Tolliver Lang since "Grave Secret." To date, Charlaine Harris has not disappointed me. "An Ice Cold Grave" is, in my opinion, the best book of the series. For those of you new to the series, Harper Connelly was struck by lightning at 15. That incident left her with a set of strange illnesses and the ability to find dead bodies and discover their cause of death from reading them. She travels around the country with Tolliver, who was raised as a brother, but is not related by blood working to help find lost people or determine the cause of death. Doraville, NC--winter's coming. With six missing persons, all of them male and under 20, the grieving townsfolk have nothing to lose when they take up a collection to bring Harper Connelly in to find the young boys. She finds all six of them pretty quickly at an abandoned property near where one of the boys was lost. All six of the boys from the town are there--as well as two boys missing from other nearby communities. Details Harper gets from reading the remains make her sicker and sadder than any other case she's ever worked--in no small part probably due to her losing her own older sister to an abuductor during high school. Harper and Tolliver want nothing more than to leave town just as soon as the check for their services is cut. Unfortunately, the Sheriff and the State Bureau of Investigation aren't going to allow that--and an attack on Harper ties them further to the town. An ice storm is closing in Knott County, NC and a serial killer is on the loose. He's got a particular interest in Harper since she was the one who found his cache of bodies. "An Ice Cold Grave" is the strongest of Harper Connelly books so far. There's a lot more at stake here--both for the families of the decedents and Harper herself. There's not just implied but actual violence. In my opinion, this is the best-written of the series. Both Harper and Tolliver have come into their own as characters. We've known them and liked them for a long time, but they now know themselves and what they want as individuals and as a team. Ms. Harris also does a great job setting the scene. Her writing really does take you there to the NC mountains and a town laid open by grief. She understands this kind of situation and treats it with grace. The plot kept me reading page after page til the book was done. "An Ice Cold Grave" is a satisfying read that I'd recommend to fans of mysteries, thrillers and paranormal fiction. While you don't have to read "Grave Secret" and "Grave Surprise" to understand this book, it's definitely not a waste of your time to do so.

Paranormal Mystery Thriller

Harper and Tolliver are building a rep inside the law enforcement community and with it new and harder jobs come their way. Looking for missing boys Harper tumbles on the dump site of a serial killer. The killer resents an outsider spoiling his fun so Harper and Tolliver must unmask the killer before Harper will be safe. A great murder mystery with just a little paranormal thrown in. My only complaint is the legnth, I wanted more.