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A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Myst) by: Charlaine Harris

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Publisher: Gollancz
Release date: 29th October, 2009
Media: Hardcover

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Rating: - Little bits of dead

Like most urban fantasy authors, Charlaine Harris puts out a lot of short stories when she isn't writing full-length novels. And thankfully, Harris has produced "A Touch of Dead" -- a short story collection that brings together (almost) all of her Sookie Stackhouse short stories, with their mellow Southern charm and slightly chilling urban fantasy flavor.

But be warned: this is not a new book, it's a short story collection. It's got five stories and rather enlarged print.

In "Fairy Dust," Sookie is already in a bad mood when fairy Claudine arrives at Merlotte's, seeking her psychic brand of help -- she and her brother Claude want to find the murderer of their sister from a local strip club. They have three suspects tied up at their house, and they want Sookie to do her mind-reading thing to discern who murdered Claudia.

"One Word Answer" has Sookie receiving an unexpected legacy when her wild cousin Hadley meets with an "Unfortunate Incident" ("My cousin Hadley, the cheerleader, had become a vampire lesbian
voodooienne. Who knew?"). But she suspects that she isn't getting the whole story from a slick lawyer and weird vampire. And "Dracula Night" comes up when Sookie is invited to celebrate the birthday of Dracula -- and like Linus, Eric is sure that Dracula himself will appear. Of course, nothing goes that smoothly.

Then Sookie gets "Lucky" when Greg Aubert reveals that he thinks his insurance agency is being sabotaged, and Sookie soon discovers a supernatural "in" using one of his family members. But the answer might be something a bit more bizarre... and it might have to do with his flourishing business. And Christmas in Bon Temps inevitably leads to "Gift Wrap" -- a lonely Sookie goes for a walk, and stumbles across a strange, naked young man, who gives her a Christmas to remember... and not just in the way you think.

The stories in "A Touch of Dead" have all been published elsewhere, just never before in one big Charlaine-Harris-exclusive volume. These stories are relatively lightweight compared to the full-length Sookie Stackhouse novels, but they are really entertaining and well-written -- and though each story has Harris' pleasant, down-to-earth Southern charm, they also have a good range of emotion -- from bittersweet to creepy, hilarious to mysterious.

And Harris infuses the prose of each story with gentle humor, from vampiric holidays to Sookie having to read the minds of an average suburban family. Her prose has plenty of lovably tongue-in-cheek moments ("I wouldn't have thought northern Louisiana was very hospitable toward beings of the fairy persuasion, anyway"), and Sookie has plenty of fun little moments with witty humor ("I hate it when fairies come into the bar. They don't tip you worth a toot").

Sookie herself is the same as always -- a sensible, matter-of-fact woman with a wee ruthless streak, and a tendency to find herself in the middle of the supernatural action. Sometimes it comes to her, and sometimes she goes to it. And assorted other favorites appear in the story: the cool and calm Vampire Bill, an unusually fanboyish Eric, the fairy Claudine (plus her hot stripper brother), the adorable Bubba, and the ever-awesome Pam.

"A Touch of Death" is a little buffet of previously published Sookie Stackhouse stories, but it's nice to have all these little nuggets of light urban fantasy fun in one volume. At the very least, it might tide you over until the next novel.

Rating: - Trueblood The Book Series

I am now almost quarter of the way through the final book ( can't wait for the new one in June!). I have only one real criticism. Having already seen Season 1 on TV and read the first 2 books, I went onto Amazon and ordered the next 7. By the time I got through the next few books, I was totally confused. There were mentions of a fire in Sookie's kitchen, The Pyramids of Giza disaster - Jason married????? what is all this about, I asked myself. I went back to the previous books, into the front cover to check the order of reading the books only to find that, the books shown are NOT in chronological order. I had to go onto a website (Fantasy fiction) to discover the proper order of the books releases, and find I was a couple of books ahead of myself. I was quite disappointed in this. such a simple mistake on the part of the publisher, but one that spoilt the series for me.Still not to worry, I have caught up now and looking forward to reading the rest of this 9th episode. Sookie is a sweet girl who hides many secrets, I wonder how she keeps up with herself. I also wondered how she managed to stay alive, was she living a charmed existence. Seems she IS!. All in all, I love this whole series and will be sad when it comes to an end. Not only are these books easy to read, I find them all quite amusing, despite the blood and gore and some of the sexual content, it is written in such a way that it does not cause offence or mental trauma. ps If Eric is free some night, send him around. haha

Rating: - A Touch of Dead - Review

A Touch of Dead was really good and it filled in a lot of the blanks that the other Sookie Stackhouse books placed. I would definitely recommend you read this book if you like other Charlaine Harris books and books based around vampires etc.

Rating: - Underwhelming.

As a fan of the True Blood television series I decided to see whether the books were as addictive as everyone claimed they were. I received the boxset of the first eight novels for my birthday a few weeks ago and found them easy to read and very compelling. Two of my friends warned me that before the sixth novel I should read this short story collection to gain insight into what had happened to Sookie's cousin Hadley as they both had read the book feeling slightly confused to what had occured and hadn't realised there were short stories relating to the novel's until after they'd finished all nine books!

I'm glad I took their advice and read the first three stories in the collection (apparently the last two relate to later books that I haven't had chance to read yet) as they filled in a bit of the background to strands of the story that had been hinted at overall. I must say, I felt slighly underwhelmed as I received the impression that the author has simply written the stories due to demand from her readers- and not because she felt the stories were important to the overall Sookie saga.

Rating: - Touch of dead

Although this book will be finished quick because the print is large, it is a great insight into sookie stackhouse's world. I read it after I had finished the first 9 books, which I would reccommend as if you read it before it may ruin some of the plot.

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