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Definitely Dead

Charlaine Harris

Published 2006         324 pages

Synopsis

Sookie Stackhouse, small town cocktail waitress and telepath, returns for more supernatural adventures in Definitely Dead, the sixth book in Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire series.   This time Sookie leaves her home town of Bon Temps and takes a trip to New Orleans, vampire capital of the USA.

Sookie’s cousin Hadley has died.  Sookie hadn’t seen Hadley in years but even so she was shocked to find out that Hadley had died again. (Hadley was a vampire a technically already dead.)  She was even more surprised to find out that she had been made Hadley’s sole heir, because they had never been close.  Before she died (for the last time) Hadley had been the consort of Louisiana’s vampire queen.  When the queen orders Sookie to New Orleans to sort out Hadley’s apartment it is an invitation that Sookie can’t refuse.

Sookie’s love life appears to be looking up when Quinn, the were tiger that she met at the Shreveport pack masters competition (Dead as a Doornail) takes her out on a date.  Unfortunately whilst they are on their date they are attacked by a couple of werewolves.  This, plus the dead body that Sookie finds hidden in her yard, leads Sookie to believe that someone doesn’t want her going to New Orleans.

Vampire politics are a dangerous business and Sookie appears to be caught in the middle of a political minefield that could turn into an all out war with the least provocation.

Luckily none of this stops Quinn asking Sookie out on a second date….

The Review

Definitely Dead is another good addition to Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire series.  It has all the creatures and characters that we have come to know and love from previous novels as well as a couple of interesting new additions, Mr Cataliades and Diantha.  Mr Cataliades is the queen’s lawyer and a half demon.  Diantha is his part demon niece.

In this book the author has thankfully cleared the decks of Sookie’s love life.  The title Definitely Dead could well be used to describe Bill and Sookie’s relationship.   Whilst in New Orleans she finds out something about Bill that is pretty much unforgivable (if his running off with his vampire ex-girlfriend in Club Dead wasn’t been enough.)  Alcide, Sam and Calvin appear to be out of the running too and in their place we have the mysterious Quinn, a were tiger with a good job who appears to be interested in Sookie for no other reason than he likes her.  Hummm… he sounds almost too good to be true.  Sookie hasn’t had much luck with men in the past.  Perhaps her luck is about to change?

I have just one tiny gripe with this book. The story has several plot lines in it that don’t appear to go anywhere, such as Sookie helping to find a missing child and the Bellefleurs’ sudden engagements.  This combined with all the references to the big vampire summit that Sookie has been ordered to attend in the future give the book an unfinished feel.  Kind of like this book is being used as a link between past stories and the next one to come rather than it being a finished work in its own right. 

That said, the book is still an excellent read and I would highly recommend Definitely Dead to anyone who likes the vampire and supernatural fantasy genre.  I like the Sookie Stackhouse books so much that I bought this book in hardcover and read it on the day that I got it.  This is high praise from me because I usually wait for books to be published in paperback before I buy them.  I spent the extra money on the hardcover and I think it was worth it!

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