Deadlocked

March 26, 2012
The events of Dead Reckoning—particularly the death of the despicable but powerful vampire Victor—have consequences for Sookie Stackhouse and her supernatural gang in Harris’s intriguing 12th and penultimate series installment. When Sookie’s vampire husband, Eric Northman, summons her to his Shreveport home to welcome the visiting king, Felipe de Castro, and his entourage, she’s shocked to find Eric feeding on another woman while the king and his underlings ravage their own humans downstairs. The woman Eric fed from turns up dead on his front lawn and someone calls the police, putting Eric and Felipe’s entourage under suspicion. With the help of ex-boyfriend Bill Compton, Sookie grudgingly sets out to clear Eric’s name while trying to keep the local fae under control after her kin, Claude and Niall, return to the land of Faery. As loyalties realign and betrayals are unmasked, Harris ably sets the stage for the ensemble’s last hurrah. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary Agency.

May 1, 2012
Vampires and werewolves and fairies, oh my: just another day in the life of Harris' navel-gazing southern belle. This one makes it an even dozen in the lingering chronicles of Sookie Stackhouse, but don't expect the old girl to call it a day anytime soon. Not when there are hangovers to conjure, love triangles to traverse, and enough extraneous characters in this convoluted fantasy serial to make Game of Thrones look under-populated. For the uninitiated, don't even attempt to gain entry here, even if you've seen an episode or two of HBO's more sexually blatant adaptation, True Blood. Suffice to say that part-fairy, vampire-loving barmaid Sookie remains much the same, if a bit more tedious than usual. The book opens with Sookie out on a girls' night at paranormal strip club Hooligans, uncomfortably watching her relative, Claude Crane, strip for a rowdy crowd. The night tosses a sour note to Sookie, whose relationship with vampire Eric Northman is never easy. "Just because I wasn't pregnant and wasn't married to someone who could make me that way, that was no reason to feel like an island in the stream," she says. Sookie is also justifiably anxious about the motivations of those around her, as she continues to hide her possession of the powerful magical artifact called a cluviel dor, an ancient fairy love gift. But protecting her hidden treasure becomes a secondary concern when Sookie discovers her lover at one of Bon Temp's infamous parties, drinking from Kym Rowe, a younger woman. Unfortunately Eric's bedtime snack bites it within a matter of hours, winding up on the sheriff's front lawn with a broken neck. Naturally it's up to Sookie, with some significant help from her other vampire lover, Bill Compton, to navigate the dizzying conflicts between the vampire, were and fae hierarchies to root out the cause of the girl's untimely death. A dull, overly complicated entry in the swampy gothic romance that feeds fans and starves newcomers.

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June 15, 2012
In this engrossing installment of the best-selling "Southern Vampire" series, Sookie Stackhouse from Bon Temps, LA, is ensnared in another mysterious death and the politics of every supernatural group in town, from the werewolves to the vampires to the magical fae. Sookie's life is in an uproar--she and her vampire husband, Eric, are on eggshells, all the worse when she finds him feeding on another woman, a young "were" whose intoxicating scent is irresistible. When this stranger winds up dead on Eric's front lawn, all worlds collide as Sookie scrambles to clear his name--and her own. Audie Award-winning narrator Johanna Parker's dynamic Southern tones are seamless with Harris's prose. VERDICT Though this book is much less sexy than previous novels in the series, Harris delivers another trademark mystery with fantastic characters and nonstop action. "True Blood" fans will not be disappointed. [The Ace hc, published in May, was a "New York Times" best seller.--Ed.]--Jamie-Lee Schombs, Middletown, NY

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2012
With her psychic bond to Eric broken (Dead Reckoning, 2011), Sookie Stackhouse is at last on her own and able to make her own decisions without the vampires knowing everything. But the lack of a bond goes both ways; Eric is being courted by a vampire queen and is keeping secrets from Sookie. Of course, things are a little different for everyone in Harris' vampire-strewn world: Area 5 is currently hosting an official representative from the Vampire King of Louisiana, who is looking into peculiar recent deaths (Dead in the Family, 2010), and Eric is being blamed for the death of a young woman whose corpse was found on his front lawn (leaving Sookie to find the real killer). The local fae are upset, too, especially after Sookie's cousin Claude is summoned by Grandfather Niall. If that wasn't enough, Sookie is sure that someone is after the cluviel dor, the powerful fairy relic. With lots of developments that move ahead the larger series plot, this is essential reading for fans but not a good place to start for new readers. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Fans of this long-running series jump from book to the TV series True Blood with reckless abandon, anything to feed their craving.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)