In Definitely Dead our lovable telepathic waitress is summoned to New Orleans by the vampire queen of Louisiana. It seems that Sookie’s recently deceased cousin Hadley was the queen’s vampire lover. Sookie needs to travel to New Orleans to clean out her cousin’s apartment and attend several vampire events. Sookie isn’t looking forward to either event. She knows there’s more to her cousin’s death than meets the eye because let’s face it, vampires don’t just die. Additionally she knows she’ll probably run into Bill and Eric at the vampire events and she’d rather avoid both of them. She’s still mad at Bill for his betrayal and she’s afraid Eric will find out what happened a few months prior when he had amnesia and temporarily lived with Sookie.

But at least there’s one bright side to going to New Orleans: Quinn, the sexy, uber-male were-tiger will be there and perhaps they’ll be able to spend some time together. Sookie really likes Quinn and enjoys dating a warm-blooded, albeit still supernatural, creature.

Shortly after arriving at Hadley’s apartment Sookie and Amelia, a hip witch who owns Hadley’s apartment building, discover a dead body on the premises. This solidifies Sookie’s suspicion that Hadley was murdered and that it’s somehow tied to the recent marriage of convenience between the queen of Louisiana and the vampire king of Arkansas. Thus Sookie sets out to uncover the mysterious circumstances surrounding Hadley’s death and find out why someone dumped a dead body in Hadley’s apartment. This places Sookie and those around her in the crosshairs of a murderer and she must rely on shrewd intelligence and her contacts within the supernatural community in order to survive.

With Definitely Dead author Charlaine Harris delivers another well-written and exciting entry in the popular Sookie Stackhouse fantasy book series. In this book we see Sookie growing as a character. She uses her knowledge of the supernatural community and its inner workings to good advantage and as such, comes across as a smart and capable protagonist.

This book sheds light on two secrets that will shock and amaze readers: one deals with Bill’s initial appearance in Bon Temps and the other involves Sookie’s heritage. I didn’t see either of these storylines coming and was open-mouthed shocked when I read about them.

I’m constantly delighted at how Charlaine Harris juggles so many new characters and sub-plots while keeping the series fresh and exciting. Definitely Dead is no exception and Harris’ ability to tie everything together will undoubtedly please fans of mystery and fantasy genres alike. You can get Definitely Dead online from America’s superstore (hmmn, just America - it’s probably “the world’s superstore” by now) or from local booksellers.

See also: Sookie Stackhouse Book 7 - All Together Dead