"A serio-comic who-done-it with supernatural overtones"

Powerful telepath Sookie Stackhouse lives in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Most local residents consider the beautiful twenty-five year old a bit slow, but Sookie knows that she must keep her mental shields in place to avoid inadvertently reading minds. Sookie has no social life, as she detests the idea of listening to her lover's inner thoughts. When Bill the vampire enters the restaurant where Sookie works, she becomes ecstatic because she cannot hear his thoughts. With vampires recently gaining legal status, Sookie hopes to finally have a bit of a love life. The two outcasts hit it off, but someone is killing the females of the town with Bill and Sookie's brother Jason being the only suspects. Sookie knows that the perpetrator has made her the next target.

Charlaine Harris, author of two wonderful mystery series, joins the ranks of the urban fantasy authors (Hamilton and Huff) writing exhilarating modern day novels. DEAD UNTIL DARK is serio-comic who-done-it with supernatural overtones to spice the tale and keep mystery, horror, and fantasy readers elated with the plot and cast. Ms. Harris' fan base should multiply with what is the beginning of a Southern paranormal mystery series.

Harriet Klausner /April, 2001
Copyright © 2001 for ParaNormal Romance Reviews

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted April 1, 2002

Author Interview

Summary

Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability". She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome--and Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting for all her life . . . But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire with a bad reputation. He hands with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of--big surprise--murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next . . .