All Together Dead

All Together Dead
Author: Charlaine Harris
Berkley, 2007
323 pages

The seventh book of the Southern Vampire series finds our leading lady, Louisiana telepath and barmaid Sookie Stackhouse, in the weeks and months just after Hurricane Katrina. She's sharing her house with the displaced New Orleans witch Amelia and her cat Bob (who was Amelia's boyfriend until she turned him into a house cat during a spell gone bad) and getting to know her new boyfriend, Quinn, a little better.  If you're not familiar with this series, you're probably going: "Whaaaa?" So maybe I'll keep quiet about the fact that Quinn is a were-tiger (sort of like a werewolf, but tiger instead of wolf) and that in the past, Sookie's been romantically linked with two vampires, Bill the Confederate Soldier and Eric the Viking. Just trust me on this.

In Book 6, Sookie found herself working a special job for Sophie-Anne, vampire queen of Louisiana. During that job, Sookie was the sole witness to the murder of Sophie-Anne's new husband, so now she's called to accompany Her Majesty and the Louisiana contingent in order to testify on the queen's behalf at a sort of central states vampire summit. Traveling to the city of Rhodes (which sounds a lot like Chicago) is a big deal for Sookie. It's her first time in such a big city, and her first trip north.

In Rhodes, Sookie is reunited with Barry, the bellboy telepath she met during the trip to Dallas in Book 2. Barry works for the King of Texas now, and has lost much of his innocence as a result. Together they stumble upon an assassination plot. There's a huge disaster with several chapters of don't-bother-me-I-can't-put-this-book-down-now reading, and Sookie is challenged in ways she never imagined.

Meanwhile, the old love triangle between Sookie, Bill, and Eric is now a love quadrangle although Sookie can't answer the question when people ask her if she loves Quinn. Sookie is not really liking Bill much at all, but it appears as if her anger is cooling. Will they ever get back together? That's always the underlying question, isn't it? And in All Together Dead, there's a new twist in her relationship with Eric.

This is probably my favorite book in the series after Book 1. Some new "supe" characters were introduced - mysterious warriors from another dimension who can become invisible. I'm interested in learning more about them. That said, I can't help but wonder what other "supes" the author's going to send our way.

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
Book 5 - Dead As A Doornail
Book 6 - Definitely Dead