Author: Charlaine Harris
Charlaine Harris takes us back to the world of Bon Temps to catch up with Sookie Stackhouse and the myriad of supernatural creatures she finds herself surrounded with. In All Together Dead we see Sookie travel further from home than ever before.
In All Together Dead it’s more apparent than ever before that Sookie is talking to us, she’s telling us these stories. There are a couple of references to things happening much quicker than the time it takes to tell of the experience.
The big vampire summit finally takes place in All Together Dead and the Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, is due to go on trial for the death of her husband. We saw Peter Threadgill, King of Arkansas, meet the true death in Definitely Dead when his plot to end Sophie’s existence and inherit Louisiana went horribly awry. Sookie has been hired by Sophie-Anne to accompany the Louisiana entourage and scout the summit listening in to the thoughts of those she can hear to help the Queen discover who is being dishonest with her or planning betrayal.
As I’m sure you can imagine there is plenty of drama and deception being plotted within the vampire ranks. I’m sure it comes with the fact that they know they will be around for aeons, stakings notwithstanding, so they are most interested in looking out for their own best interests; these may include standing publicly with those in power that you think will benefit you in the long run regardless of your personal feelings.
Sookie really has her work cut out for her but finds a little extra curricular entertainment in exploring her gift with fellow telepath Barry the Bellboy, whom she met in Dallas early in the series. They find that working together boosts the strength of their signals. It also gives them the ability to communicate in private because it doesn’t matter where you go – surrounded by vampires and their enhanced senses, someone is going to overhear you.
With so much going on in her public, business life you wouldn’t think Sookie would have time to get herself involved in any romantically tricky situations. It seems that Sookie always finds the time to get entangled in a romantically touchy situation. Part of you wants to shake your head and wonder if she’ll ever learn. You have to cut her some slack though – until she became involved in the supernatural world she didn’t really date; if it wasn’t the guys being scared off then it was Sookie herself not being able to relax always knowing what was in the guy’s minds. I am sure I would be making up for lost time too, especially considering the pool of men surrounding Sookie these days seem to be such fine specimens.
Sookie and Quinn are exploring the options open to them in a relationship. Quinn travels quite extensively for his work so the two are finding time together is quite a luxury. Getting to know one another on a more personal level and understanding each other is not easy when your time together is so limited and so often snatched between other commitments.
To compound the confusion, Sookie finds herself in a situation where she needs to exchange blood with Eric once again and strengthen the bond they share. Sookie finds herself feeling much closer to Eric and being affected by his nearness in ways she hadn’t given any thought to.
All Together Dead takes current events and incorporates them into the story which just brings it much closer to home, makes it more believable. Sophie-Anne has been affected quite seriously by Hurricane Katrina and the effects on all of Louisiana have been addressed throughout the book.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!