Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

The second book in the Southern Vampire Novel series featuring Sookie Stackhouse, following on from Dead Until Dark.

Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is on a streak of bad luck. First, her coworker is murdered and no one seems to care. Then she's face-to-face with a beastly creature that gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it).

Point is, they saved her life. So when one of the bloodsuckers asks for a favor, she complies. And soon, Sookie's in Dallas using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved. There's just one condition: the vampires must promise to behave--and let the humans go unharmed. Easier said than done. All it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly. . .

From having never read a vampire novel, this was my third one in a month. I guess I haven't really got to any hardcore ones yet though.

When yet another one of Sookie's coworkers is murdered, and Sookie is the one to find the body stuffed in the back of one of the local policemen's car, it's bad enough. But when she is attacked by a maenad and ends up with poisonous wounds on her back, and all so that she can give a "message" to Eric, you know that Sookie's in for a rough ride.

It has been agreed that Sookie will be hired out to a nest of vampires who live in Dallas. One of the vampires has gone missing, and it is up to Sookie to question the humans who hang out with the vampires to see what they know. Sookie has agreed to do this only on the condition that the humans won't be harmed once they have been finished with.

Sookie and Bill head off for Dallas, not realising that they are heading into a lot of danger. There is a radical anti-vampire movement there that is masquerading in the form of a fundamentalist church, known as the Fellowship of the Sun.

The fellowship has a vampire in their midst who is determined to commit suicide by exposing himself to the sun's rays. That is not enough however....the leaders of the fellowship want another vampire, and maybe even a couple of humans to make the show really exciting!!

Along the way, Sookie meets another telepath, some shapeshifters and many more vampires, and in more danger than she really wanted to be! Can't a girl just live a quiet life with her vampire boyfriend. Even once they return home, there is still more drama, as Sookie sets out to assist in solving the mystery of who really killed her friend and co-worker.

Once again, I really enjoyed this read. There were several laugh out loud moments, and the relationship between Bill and Sookie seems to be developing very nicely indeed! It will be interesting to see how the continued presence of Eric impacts on their relationship in future books! I guess because I had more of an idea what to expect I actually enjoyed it more than Dead Until Dark. Hopefully I will be picking up the next book in the series tomorrow, so I will soon know if the high standard has been maintained or not.

Rating 4.5/5

Other Blogger's Thoughts:

Melissa's Bookshelf