Definitely Dead

Definitely Dead (2006) Charlaine Harris

First things first, this book had me laughing out loud, and reading passages to Michael. That usually only happens for Steven Brust books, but in multiple places Charlaine Harris nailed the dialog, and forced me to keep interrupting Michael game so he could laugh with me.

Additionally, for those of you who don’t already know, I dislike hardback books. I find them uncomfortable to read, and they don’t fit in my jacket pocket, so I can’t take them anywhere. It is a measure of my respect for Charlaine Harris’s writing that I bought this book in hardback, and within two weeks of publication. (Although I have to admit that if I hadn’t bought the previous hardback on sale for $4.99, I would have been less inclined to get Definitely Dead in hardback.)

If you read the short story “One Word Answer” in the collection Bite, this book picks up the pieces left from that story: Sookie has to go to New Orleans to clear out her cousin Hadley’s apartment, and ends up involved in the power play between the Queen of Louisiana and the King of Arkansas.

One thing I particularly liked is that Charlaine Harris resolved some of the issues I had with the last book. She reduced the number of Sookie’s suitors, and explained why Sookie had so many supernatural suitors in the first place. I very much appreciated this, because it irked me that Sookie had every supernatural man she met swooning at her feet. I felt like the series was close to crossing the line from one sort of fantasy to another, different sort. Although Charlaine Harris didn’t sweep the board clean of Sookie suitors, she did get the number down to something far more reasonable.

SPOILER

(rot 13)
V unir gb nqzvg gung V jnf tynq gb frr guvatf pbzr qbja zbfgyl gb Dhvaa naq Revp, naq V nz frpergyl ubcvat gung fur pubbfrf Revp. Nygubhtu Fnz vfa’g arprffnevyl bhg bs gur ehaavat, V guvax gung Fbbxvr unf tbggra urefrys gb gur cbvag gung gur arrqf gur cebgrpgvba bs fbzrbar yvxr Dhvaa be Revp; ab znggre ubj avpr Fnz vf, V qba’g guvax ur pna xrrc ure fnsr sebz nyy gur perrcvrf jub ner nsgre ure.

V jnf nyfb tynq gb frr Fbbxvr svanyyl qrny jvgu Qroovr Cryg’f snzvyl. Nygubhtu V qba’g arprffnevyl oryvrir gung gurl jbhyq unir gnxra guvatf nf pnyzyl nf gurl qvq (V rkcrpgrq gur cneragf gb ernpg zber yvxr gur fvfgre) V nz tynq gung Fbbxvr pna svanyyl chg Qroovr’f qrngu oruvaq ure. Qba’g trg zr jebat gubhtu, V jnf tynq gung Fbbxvr jnf abg noyr gb yvtugyl oehfu bss gnxvat nabgure yvsr. Ure ubeebe naq thvyg bire jung fur’q qbar ner cneg bs jung znxr ure fb uhzna naq yvxnoyr. Vg jbhyqa’g unir orra evtug vs fur’q orra noyr gb whfg oehfu bss gung qrngu, ohg fur qvq arrq erfbyhgvba, naq V jnf cyrnfrq gb frr fur svanyyl tbg vg.)

END SPOILER

The mysteries in this book were good, but seemed to take a back seat to resolving some of Sookie’s romantic entanglements. Which was actually okay, because they really needed sorting out, and the two mysteries we got were pretty good.

If you have not read a Sookie Stackhouse book before, there is enough back story here to explain what’s going on, however, it would probably be more satisfying to read if you have actually read the previous books. But if you’re already reading the Sookie Stackhouse books, a lot happens in this story that you are not going to want to miss. Plus, it’s a lot of fun.
Rating: 8/10

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