Dead in the Family

March 15, 2010
Still reeling from the deaths of her fairy cousin, Claudine, and many others in 2009's Dead and Gone
, Sookie Stackhouse struggles with paranormal politics in her entertaining if slow-moving 10th outing. When Claudine's triplet, Claude, appears at her doorstep, Sookie reluctantly allows him to move in. The government threatens two-natures with mandatory registration, and tensions run high in the local Were pack. Then Eric's maker, a Roman named Appius Livius Ocella, arrives without warning, bringing along Alexei Romanov, whom he rescued from the Bolsheviks and turned into a vampire. Though the action often builds too slowly, the exploration of family in its many human and undead variations is intriguing, and Harris delivers her usual mix of eccentric characters and engaging subplots.

May 15, 2010
In the tenth entry in Harris's popular paranormal series (after "Dead and Gone"), Sookie heals quickly from the torture she suffered at the hands of the Fae, but emotionally she is a wreck. Add an unexpected fairy house guest, shape-shifters using her property for a good run, and a few dead bodies she did not know about, and you have a typical day in the life of mind-reading Sookie. The Weres and shape-shifters have also recently gone public, and now the world is dealing with the knowledge of their existence. VERDICT With so many different characters and plotlines, this book is somewhat hard to follow, even for series fans. There is a lot of action and some romance, but Sookie just runs from one emotionally charged and/or dangerous situation to another. Readers new to the series will be confused. Best appreciated by longtime fans.Jennifer Draper, Pickering P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2010
Harris tenth installment in the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse finds the telepathic barmaid in Bon Temps, Louisiana, recovering slowly from the near-fatal injuries she incurred during the recent Fae War. Sookies only source of happiness is her strong relationship with vampire Eric. Thank goodness for that, since at least one fairy remains on the loose (despite the closing of the door into Fae) and has it in for Sookie. The actual mystery in this entry comes only after the book is well under way and is not always central to the story. But that wont keep readers from thoroughly enjoying the latest entry in the Sookie saga; the slower pace of this book and the emphasis on wrapping up loose ends feels right after the frenetic pace and near-total chaos at the end of Dead and Gone (2009). As has been the case in the series last few entries, the body count is high, starting when the local werewolf pack run on Sookies land at full moon and tell her theyve smelled a corpse. A must-read for series fans but not a good place for new readers to start. With the popularity of the series and TrueBlood, the HBO show based on it, any new Sookie novel is an automatic purchase for libraries.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)