Sookie's Back: Dead and Gone

Let's get this out of the way, I'm a big fan of Charlaine Harris. I love her earlier work on the Aurora Teagarden and particularly the Lily Bard and the Harper Connelly series. I have enjoyed her Southern Vampire series as well, and even though the current vamp trend is starting to wear kind of thin (Twilight-hysteria, anyone?) there are many new vampire/UF series that I have found because of it, so it's not all bad.

Now, Harris is an excellent writer and the latest Sookie Stackhouse (for me since where I live I'd better wait for the paperback prints) is a solid, entertaining book. I read it in one sitting which is not unusual with Harris' books and Sookie's adventures continue to be interesting. Some of the novelty and charm of the earlier books has faded, but that happens when a series gets to be as long as this. I hope Harris (and her publishers, really) knows when to draw a series to a close, she certainly has done it right with Aurora Teagarden and Lily Bard. I personally feel it's better to quit while you're ahead and leave the readers sighing for maybe just one more book than write too many and leave that bad taste in their mouths. Sort of like a TV-series that is forcibly stretched too far and becomes boring or silly because it should have ended years ago (you know which ones I mean...).

This installment was still okay, though, absolutely worth reading. Not the best one in the series by a long shot, but okay :) Do read Charlaine Harris, if you haven't tried her books yet, she does tell a very good story. For those against the current vampire/UF trend, try Aurora Teagarden and Lily Bard for wonderful, more traditional mystery-writing.