{"id":226,"date":"2006-04-16T08:12:30","date_gmt":"2006-04-16T15:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=226"},"modified":"2021-12-16T09:19:04","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:19:04","slug":"dead-as-a-doornail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/226","title":{"rendered":"Dead as a Doornail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dead As A Doornail<\/a><\/em> (2005) Charlaine Harris<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dead As A Doornail<\/em> is the fifth book in Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire series, and full of complications and murder and danger. Someone is killing the double-natured, and since Sookie’s brother Jason was bitten, he’s in the same danger as the rest.<\/p>\n

I really liked several different things about this story. I found the mystery interesting–I like the way that she works the supernatural into the mystery. I did guess part of the mystery, although not the entire thing. But that just made the whole thing even better, since it’s so satisfying to correctly guess the bad guy in a well-written mystery. <\/p>\n

I also like how she continues to focus on how Sookie struggles to make ends meet. Things that are taken for granted in other mysteries are important here–things like hospital bills and health insurance and home owners insurance, and the little day to day issues of recovering from a tragedy. Those little details make the story far more real than stories that don’t deal with the supernatural. <\/p>\n

One thing that did bug me in this book, however, is that Sookie had way too many suitors. I was somewhat frustrated by the fact that supernatural creatures seemed almost unable to resist her charms. I realize that Charlaine Harris explains it to some degree, but still. (Of course it made the bit with Claude all the more amusing.) And I am very curious as to whom Sookie is going to end up settling down with. Part of me wants it to be Sam, since I really like Sam, but part of me thinks that she needs to end up with a vampire, since she always talks about how relaxed they make her feel, since she can’t read their minds. So then I lean towards Eric, whom I also like. Though I suppose as long as it’s not Bill or Alcide I’ll be happy.<\/p>\n

But that isn’t a huge thing. And I really do love Charlaine Harris’ storytelling. There are a lot of different characters, but they’re all different and I don’t have trouble keeping them straight. The dialog is sharp and witty, and the mystery is well done. In the face of all that, who am I to complain that Sookie has too many men falling for her?<\/p>\n

Okay. One other thing bugged me. I wasn’t quite sure why Lily Bard made a brief appearance. I got that Debbie Pelt’s family wanted to know what had happened to her, but I found the fact that Lily and Jack were doing the investigating rather disorienting. They didn’t seem to exist in the same world, so I was thrown when they showed up. Glad to see they were doing well, but thrown never the less.<\/p>\n

If you’re already reading about Sookie Stackhouse, then this is a book you don’t want to miss. If you’ve never read a Sookie Stackhouse book, then you really should. However, you may want to start at an earlier book. Although you could read this book without knowing Sookie’s back-story, I think it is easier to deal with all the different characters, if you know her past with them.
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dead As A Doornail (2005) Charlaine Harris Dead As A Doornail is the fifth book in Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire series, and full of complications and murder and danger. Someone is killing the double-natured, and since Sookie’s brother Jason was bitten, he’s in the same danger as the rest. I really liked several different things […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,2,8,291,26,56,16],"tags":[297,298,313],"class_list":["post-226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-fantasy","category-mystery","category-paper","category-romance","category-sexual-content","category-supernatural","tag-charlaine-harris","tag-sookie-stackhouse","tag-vampires"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3E","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1713,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/1713","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":0},"title":"Dead and Gone","author":"Michelle","date":"May 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Dead and Gone (2009) Charlaine Harris When I first discovered the Sookie Stackhouse books the were like a revelation: Romance can be fun? Really? And they were fun! Mysteries, vampires and sex that wasn't completely ridiculous! Then at some point, they started to get ridiculous. It seemed as if every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Dead-Gone.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":545,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/545","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":1},"title":"All Together Dead","author":"Michelle","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"All Together Dead (2007) Charlaine Harris It's been awhile since I read a new Sookie Stackhouse story. They're now published in hardback first, and as much as I enjoy her stories and her writing, I don't much care for hardback books. I also wasn't sure they were worth $25. So\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/All-Together-Dead.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":246,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/246","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":2},"title":"Definitely Dead","author":"Michelle","date":"May 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/Definitely-Dead.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":123,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/123","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":3},"title":"Shakespeare’s Counselor","author":"Michelle","date":"September 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Shakespeare's Counselor (2001) Charlaine Harris My complaint about this book is that it was too engrossing. I laid down just to read a couple of chapters, and two hours later I found myself two-thirds of the way into the book, and not going to sleep early as I'd planned. Here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shakespeares Counselor","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/shakespeares%20counselor.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/133","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":4},"title":"Powers of Detection","author":"Michelle","date":"September 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Powers of Detection (2004) edited Dana Stabenow I like fantasies. I like mysteries. So... \"Stories of Mystery and Fantasy\" sounds like a good thing. Plus Charlaine Harris has a Sookie Stackhouse short story, and that had to be a good thing. Well, it was an okay thing. The Charlaine Harris\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/09\/Powers-of-Detection.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":82,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/82","url_meta":{"origin":226,"position":5},"title":"Dead Until Dark","author":"Michelle","date":"June 20, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Southern Vampire Mysteries: Dead Until Dark (2001), Living Dead in Dallas (2002), Club Dead (2003), Dead to the World (2004) Charlaine Harris If I told you I'd been reading erotic, vampire mysteries, would you still respect me? If the answer is \"No,\" too bad. Since the Victorian part of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/06\/Dead-Until-Dark.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}