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.