Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris

   2009; 261 pages.  Book 9 (out of 13) in the “Sookie Stackhouse” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Paranormal Mystery; Gothic Romance; Vampires; Werewolves.  Overall Rating : 7*/10.

 

    It was a major coming-out event.  Almost as big as when human beings found out there were lots of Vampires living in their midst.  This time both humans and vamps discovered they had Wereanimals (werewolves, werefoxes, and others) living in their neighborhoods and keeping a low profile.

 

    Reactions were mixed.  Some humans accepted their new furry neighbors without any qualms.  Others were less thrilled.  Some homo sapiens were downright hostile.

 

    So when a local werepanther was killed in a very gruesome fashion in Bon Temps, Louisiana, local resident Sookie Stackhouse wants to know if this was a hate crime.  Because she too has some paranormal genes in her that she’s been very careful to keep secret.

 

    She’s half-human and half-fairy.

 

What’s To Like...

    Dead and Gone, is the ninth book in Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series.  In the previous tome, From Dead to Worse, Sookie meets her great-grandfather Niall, a fairy from another dimension (the fae live a long time), now that relationship gets developed more fully.

 

    The storyline structure utilizes the usual formula.  Charlaine Harris opens things by getting us caught up on the status of a slew of characters via the coming-out being broadcast at Merlotte’s Bar.  After the savage murder grabs our attention, the plotline splits into several other threads.  Her boss, Sam Merlotte, has to deal with a family tragedy; Sookie’s great-grandfather is involved in fairy kingdom unrest, and several personal relationships are impacted by the wereanimals’ coming-out.

 

    That sounds like a recipe for literary confusion, but Charlaine Harris makes sure that things unfold smoothly.  The story is once again told in the first-person point-of-view, Sookie’s, which means the reader gets to hear her thoughts about things such as unintentionally killing someone, being duped into a betrothal, and how to cope with reading other peoples’ minds since she’s a telepath.  Introspection abounds.

 

    The ending is tense, exciting, and bittersweet.  Both the good guys and bad guys suffer some casualties.  Still others live to fright another day, but not all the survivors live happily ever after.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 4,882 ratings and 1,144 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.02/5 based on 193,898 ratings and 4,955 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Lock the doors and don’t let anyone in.”

    “Doors are locked; no one’s knocking,” she said.

    “Don’t let me in,” I said, “unless I give you the password.”

    “Sure, Sookie,” she said, and I could tell she thought I’d gone over the edge.  “What’s the password?”

    “Fairypants,” I said, and how I came up with that I have no idea.  It simply seemed super unlikely that anyone else in the world would say it.

    “I got it,” Amelia said.  “Fairypants.”  (pg. 223)

 

    Dr. Ludwig takes care of the cases who can’t go to the regular human hospital because the staff would flee screaming at the sight of them or the lab wouldn’t be able to analyze their blood.  I could see Dr. Ludwig’s coarse brown hair as she walked around the bed to the door.  Dr. Ludwig had a deep voice.  I suspected she was a hobbit—not really, but she sure did look like one.  Though she wore shoes, right?  I spent some moments trying to remember if I’d ever caught a glimpse of Dr. Ludwig’s feet.  (pg. 234)

 

Kindle Details…

    Dead and Gone currently costs $6.99 at Amazon.  The rest of the e-books in the series are all in the $3.99-$9.99 price range.  Charlaine Harris has several other series for your Kindle; the prices of those books are generally in the $5.99-$14.99 range.

 

 

In a rare moment of wisdom, I listened to my own advice.  (pg. 145)

    I noted eleven instances of profanity in the first 25% of Dead and Gone, which is about average for this series.  Later on, one f-bomb crops up, plus a couple of rolls-in-the-hay.

    All that introspection mentioned earlier tends to slow down the pacing.  At one point, for example, the reader is treated to a couple of pages detailing Sookie’s thoughts while weeding the garden.

 

    For me the big issue was the investigation of first killing.  To put it tersely, there is none, even with two FBI agents arriving on the scene to help out.  Despite the killing's brutality, life continues on as usual for most of the residents of the small town of Bon Temps.  Eventually, the case gets solved, but even that is due to sudden epiphanies, not shrewd detective work.

 

    If you’re reading this series for the human (and not-so-human) interrelationships involved, you probably won’t mind the way the killings are handled.  But if you’re reading them for the paranormal crime mysteries, like I am, then you may find Dead and Gone to be quite a disappointment.

 

    Overall, this was still a worthwhile read, but it doesn’t measure up to the first couple of books in the series.  It’s almost as if the author has run out of paranormal crime concepts, but still has lots of ideas about where to take the characters’ lives.  We’ll see if things get better in the next installment, Dead in the Family.  I’m not quitting this series yet.

 

    7 Stars.  One last thing.  One of my favorite recurring characters in this series, Bubba, makes an appearance in Dead and Gone.  It’s brief, but here’s hoping he gets to play a more important part in one of the remaining tales.

Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris

   2006; 324 pages.  Book 6 (out of 13) in the (completed) “Sookie Stackhouse” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Paranormal Mystery; Gothic Romance; Vampires.  Overall Rating : 6½*/10.

 

    It’s a sad time.  Sookie’s cousin, Hadley, is dead, a stake driven through her heart, and it now falls to Sookie to make a trip to New Orleans to clean out Hadley’s apartment.

 

    Before Hadley's demise she had a pretty high-ranking position: she was the consort to the queen of the Louisiana vampires, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, who recently married the Vampire King of Arkansas, Peter Threadgill.  Like many royal marriages, it’s an arrangement of convenience, not of love.

 

    Sophie-Anne and Hadley were close.  Extremely close.  Perhaps even embarrassingly close in the eyes of Sophie's new husband.  Particularly if a certain item, given by the King to his bride and presently rumored to be missing turns up somewhere else.

 

    So be on the lookout when you’re going through things at Hadley’s apartment, Sookie.  And be careful if you find anything that looks a bit …um… regal.  Someone may be willing to kill for it.

 

What’s To Like...

    Definitely Dead is the sixth book in Charlaine Harris’s "Sookie Stackhouse" series, which I’ve thus far been reading in order.  Vampires take center stage here, with Sookie once again reluctantly getting involved in their affairs.

 

    The shape-shifting weres (as in “werewolves”, “werepanthers”, “werefoxes”, etc.) are also around, and it was nice to also see demons, including “half-demons” and “semi-demons”, and fairies getting some ink.  I was especially delighted when a witch or four showed up, and it’s always a pleasure to have Bubba show up, even if he's just making a cameo appearance.

 

    There are plenty of plotlines to keep Sookie busy and the reader turning the pages.  Children get lost, pregnancies lead to complications, The family of the late Debbie Pelt still wants answers about her disappearance, messengers get waylaid, and all sorts of people – dead and undead – are way too interested in what’s in Hadley’s apartment.  Also the recurring theme of who Sookie should give her heart to (metaphorically, not literally) – Eric or Bill – now gets a bit more complicated with the emergence of a third suitor.

 

    I enjoyed the music nods to No Doubt, NIN, Eminem, and Usher, as well as the mention of two favorite "undead" songs: “After Midnight” (see below) and “Bad Moon Rising”.  Sookie gets a genealogical jolt late in the book that helps explain why undead males seem to always be attracted to her.  And it’s always fun to see Tarot cards being used.

 

    The ending is suitably exciting, if a bit straightforward.  Sookie saves the day and most, but not all, of the plot threads are resolved.  The book’s title is referenced a couple of times, but mostly it’s just a general caveat about declaring someone dead in a world where all sorts of undead possibilities exist.  There is some cussing, but not a lot: I counted 37 instances in the whole book, the majority of which occurred in the later chapters.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.7/5 based on 1,640 ratings and 560 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.01/5 based on 198,265 ratings and 4,148 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “The boss wants to see you,” she said.  “I’m calling from his office.”

    Eric’s office, in the back of his club, Fangtasia, was well soundproofed.  I could barely hear KDED, the all-vampire radio station, playing in the background: Clapton’s version of “After Midnight”.

    “Well, lah-de-dah.  He’s too lofty to make his own phone calls?”

    “Yes,” Pam said.  That Pam—literal-minded was the phrase for her.  (pg. 32)

 

    Somewhere close, there was a lot of hostility and evil intent.  We left the sidewalk to cross the street to the parking lot.  I gripped Quinn’s arm and then let it go so we could clear for action.

    “Something’s wrong,” I said.

    Without replying, Quinn began scanning the area.  He unbuttoned his suit coat with his left hand so he could move without hindrance.  His fingers curled into fists.  Since he was a man with a powerful protective urge, he stepped ahead of me, in front of me.

    So of course, we were attacked from behind.  (pg. 96)

 

“You look better than a Happy Meal to a three-year-old.”  (pg. 276)

    I had a couple of quibbles with Definitely Dead, mostly with the storytelling.

 

    The book starts out slow, as we get reintroduced to all sorts of secondary characters who frankly will not play any part in the story, including The Fellowship of the Sun, a group of baddies from earlier books in the series.  Backstories are given, acquaintances are made, but unless this is your first book in this series, it's all old news and doesn't lead anywhere.

 

    The same holds true for several of the plot threads.  A little boy goes missing, Sookie’s telepathic talent saves the day.  Jason’s werepanther girlfriend has had a miscarriage and is in desperate need of medical help, Sookie comes through with the discreet, paranormal medical connections.  I kept waiting to see how both of these would later impact the main storyline, but they never did.  Frankly, after a hundred pages, I still had no idea what the main storyline was.

 

    Then there’s Hadley.  How come I can’t remember anything about her?  Well it turns out she'd never appeared in any of the previous books in the series.  She and her fatal backstory were introduced in a one-off short story titled One Word Answer, published elsewhere in a gothic anthology magazine.  Unless you happened to have also read that magazine, Hadley will blindside you.

 

    It almost felt like Charlaine Harris came up with this great idea for a plotline, then realized it was only good for 150 pages, so she padded it with all sorts of tangents and backstories to turn it into a full-length novel.

 

    6½ Stars.  Definitely Dead may be filled with filler, but it still does fine as a beach read or airport novel.  High-brow it isn’t; highly-entertaining it is.

Dead As A Doornail - Charlaine Harris

   2005; 295 pages.  Book 5 (out of 13) in the “Sookie Stackhouse” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Paranormal Mystery; Gothic Romance; Vampires.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

    There’s a sniper shooting the Weres in Bon Temps, Louisiana!  Last week it was Heather Kinman, the first one shot, and the first fatality.  Then it was Calvin Norris’s turn.  Now Sookie’s boss, Sam Merlotte, has just become the third and latest victim.  Fortunately, both Calvin and Sam survived, but not without losing a lot of blood.

    All three were “weres”, aka “shifters”, aka “shape shifters”.  Humans tend to refer to them as "werewolves", but that’s not totally accurate, since a lot of them turn into other animals when there’s a full moon.  For instance, there’s a whole pack of werepanthers in Bon Temps.

    Needless to say, the local Shifter community wants the sniper found and disposed of as quickly as possible.  But who is it?

    Well, any vampire is under suspicion, since shifters and vamps have never gotten along well.  Humans are less suspect because most of them don’t even know that shifters exist, let alone live in Bon Temps.  Sookie’s brother Jason has just been “turned” into a shifter though, so perhaps he’s holding a grudge against the were community.  There are some weres who think he should be eliminated, guilty or not, simply as a precaution.  Some even think Sookie could’ve done it, since she’s one of the few local humans who knows all about shifters and might hold a grudge about Jason being turned into one.

    So everybody watch their step and stay alert!  There’s a mystery to solve, and were-lives depend on it!

What’s To Like...

    Dead as a Doornail is the fifth book in Charlaine Harris’s incredibly popular “Sookie Stackhouse” series.  I’ve been reading these in order, and it’s fun to watch Sookie gradually develop from a young and innocent bar waitress into a valuable go-between betwixt our world and the paranormal.

    The series' storytelling seems also to be evolving.  This time there’s more emphasis on solving the sniper mystery, and less emphasis on Sookie’s romantic escapades.  Male and female readers might have different views on whether that's a plus or a minus.  The vampires here play second fiddle to the shifters, which is a nice change of pace, plus I think Sookie is growing a tad bit less sassy.

    There are a slew of characters to keep track of, some recurring, others new.  The number of “regulars” keeps growing, and Charlaine Harris  does a nice and thorough job of getting new readers acquainted with them within the first couple of chapters.  I didn’t note any new paranormal critters to deal with; just vampires, fairies, and shifters.

    As with any good mystery, there are multiple plot threads to solve.  Who’s killing the shifters?  Why’s Tara with Mickey instead of Franklin?  Who’s going to be the “Leader of the Pack”?  Why is someone trying to kill Sookie (after all, she’s not a shifter)?  Will Sookie ever be free of the inquiries about Debbie Pelt’s disappearance?  That last one is a carryover from the previous book, in which Sookie learned what it feels like to kill someone.

    There’s a pair of literary nods: one to Tami Hoag (whom I’ve read and liked), one to Carolyn Haines (whom I’d never heard of, but is real).  The ritual for choosing the Leader of the Pack was neat to witness, and my favorite vamp, Bubba, makes a cameo appearance near the end of the book.  The story is written in the first-person POV (Sookie’s), and I counted about 20 instances of cussing, which averages out to about one every fifteen pages or so.  Sookie doesn’t get to visit any new places; everything takes place either in Shreveport or in the greater Bon Temps area.

    The ending is stutter-step, exciting, and surprising, thanks to a couple of twists that I didn’t see coming.  If you guess the identity of the sniper before Sookie figures it out, you did better than me.  There’s a vague teaser for the next book in the series, as well as a 12-page preview of it, although personally I never read those previews.

Excerpts...

    “Eric’s provided you with a bodyguard?  You need a bodyguard?”

    “Listen, bozo,” I said through clenched jaws, “my life goes on while you’re gone.  So does the town.  People are getting shot around here, among them Sam.  We needed a substitute bartender, and Charles was volunteered to help us out.”  That may not have been entirely accurate, but I was not in the accuracy business at the moment.  I was in the Make My Point business.  (pg. 107)

    “Sookie, you have to understand that for hundreds, thousands, of years we have considered ourselves better than humans, separate from humans.”  He thought for a second.  “Very much in the same relationship to humans as humans have to, say, cows.  Edible like cows, but cute, too.”

    I was knocked speechless.  I had sensed this, of course, but to have it spelled out was just … nauseating.  Food that walked and talked, that was us.  McPeople.  (pg. 214)

You can take the man out of the Viking era, but you can’t take the Viking out of the man.  (pg. 212 )

    I can’t think of anything to quibble about in Dead as a Doornail.  The pacing was moderate over the first half of the book, but picked up nicely in the second half.  Keeping all the characters straight might prove a challenge to readers new to the series, but it wasn’t one for me.

    Dead as a Doornail is both a standalone novel and a part of a completed 13-book series.  It will be interesting to see if this shift towards murder-mystery solving is a one-off thing or the start of a new trend.

    8 Stars.  I think Charlaine Harris’s main aspiration in writing this series is to keep the reader entertained.  That may not sound very ambitious, but Dead as a Doornail achieved that goal nicely for me, and sometimes that’s exactly what you want from a book.