Dead As A Doornail

Dead As A Doornail
Author: Charlaine Harris
Ace, 2005
295 pages

I can't believe I've now read five books in the Southern Vampire series (which the HBO-TV series True Blood is based on. I'm having to speed up my reading of this series in order to understand the show!)

In the most recent book, Sookie's brother Jason joined the supernatural world when he became a were-panther. Dead As A Doornail is more about this world of the "Shifters" than vampires. It just so happens that someone out there is shooting Shifters, and once again, all eyes are on Jason, since the Shifter community thinks he's angry about being "turned." When Sookie's boss Sam Merlotte and acquaintance Calvin (both Shifters) become victims of the sniper, she feels compelled to help Jason prove his innocence.

Unfortunately, it now seems that someone's out to get Sookie. Her house it torched, and the arsonist seems to be a card-carrying member of Sookie's nemesis the Fellowship of the Sun - the "church" she and Jason encountered in Book #2 (Living Dead In Dallas). But things don't quite add up.

In the meantime, Colonel Flood (werewolf packmaster introduced in the most recent book) is killed and a successor must be chosen. Sookie finds herself drawn into the world of werewolf politics. And we learn more about Claudine, the character who was introduced as Tara's friend in Book #4 (Dead To The World). Beautiful Claudine is . . . um, a fairy. With an equally beautiful twin brother named Claude.

Tara, meanwhile, has come under a sort of spell by an evil vampire who won't go away. Sookie will have to ask Eric for a favor, and since nothing's for free with Eric, she has to comply with one of his requests: he wants to know what happened to him in Book #4 because he cannot remember (his memory had been wiped out and it was bugging him like crazy that he didn't know what had happened. I have to say that I like Eric more and more.)

As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that describing this book is a lot like recalling an episode of a TV show to a person who's never really seen it before. Sorry. But it's getting more and more difficult for me to keep up with all the characters in this series!

To be perfectly honest, I prefer the vampires to the Shifters. I just don't care that much for werewolves or were-panthers or were-anythings. There was a new character introduced in this book that has me intrigued, though: Quinn, the big bald guy who reminds me of Mr. Clean. He tells Sookie that she will see him again. The plot thickens.

Dead As A Doornail is probably my least favorite of the series so far. This isn't to say that I didn't like it, but I wasn't sitting on the edge of my seat or anything. At this point, I want Sookie and Bill (her former boyfriend, a vampire) to get back together and just live (or not live, ha ha) happily ever after. Actually, I'd kind of like for him to just get it over with and turn her into a vampire and the two of them fly off to Romania or wherever. I WILL BE ANGRY if they don't eventually get back together. But I'm hooked on this series, and I'll keep on reading it. No matter what.

Previous books in the series that I've reviewed:
Book 1 - Dead Until Dark
Book 2 - Living Dead In Dallas
Book 3 - Club Dead
Book 4 - Dead To The World