Charlaine Harris, Dead as a Doornail

Charlaine Harris, Dead as a Doornail - When the Japanese invented synthetic blood, the vampires came out of the closet and mankind had to learn to co-exist with another species. Sookie Stackhouse, cocktail waitress in Merlotte's Bar in Bon Temp, Louisiana, is thrilled because she is a very strong telepath who cannot read a vampire's mind. (How can she? They're dead). After breaking off with her first lover, vampire Bill, and her second lover Eric magically forget about their one night sexual extravaganza, Sookie vows to live a quiet life.

She finds she can't turn her back on the supernatural community because her brother Jason was bitten by a were-panther and on the nights of the full moon he changes. When that happens, he spends his time in Hotshot, a small shapeshifting community. When one of the Hotshot residents is killed and two other shifters are killed, the shape changers look towards Jason as the culprit because he was turned against his will. Sookie wants to find the shooter so her brother won't be killed but she has her hands full with amorous weres, sexy vampires and two fairies who watch over her because she keeps getting into dangerous situations.

Charlaine Harris has created a charming, beguiling and sometimes unsafe alternate Earth where the creatures of the night are both sexy and dangerous, sometimes at the same time. The heroine of DEAD AS A DOORNAIL is a southern steel magnolia who has the spine to get a hazardous job done even if it means risking her own life. Sookie's world is never dull and she has more in common with the supernatural beings than she does with her own kind.

Harriet Klausner