Book Review: Living Dead In Dallas

Image from goodreads.com

Title:  Living Dead In Dallas
Author:  Charlaine Harris
Pages:  291
Publication Date:  2002
Version:  Paperback
Genre:  Fantasy/Mystery/Fiction

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is on a streak of real bad luck. First, her co-worker gets murdered and no one seems to care. Then Sookie is attacked - and poisoned - late one night by some weird and apparently mythical beast. She only survives because the local vampires roll up and graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it). But in return the blood-suckers need a favor. 

Which is why Sookie ends up in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire, on the condition that her undead friends don't do anything, well, vampiric while she's there. Easier said than done. All it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly..."

My Review:
Sookie Stackhouse is just your normal, small town, girl…well kind of.  She is a small town girl, living in a small town in the south, but that is about as far as it really goes.  Sookie has a vampire for a boyfriend, can read peoples thoughts, and works for a shape shifter who owns a bar in town.  Sookie has made a deal with a vampire clan that she will help them anytime they need her in reading humans thoughts, but only if they promise not to kill the human in question.  Eric is the head vampire who also would love it if Sookie would dump Bill and become his instead.  Eric gets word form the Dallas vampire clan that they are in need of help finding a vampire of theirs that has been vampire-napped.  Sookie has to help them find their vampire when Eric “loans her out” to them for help.  Along the way Sookie ends up in a bit of trouble herself and the only one able to help her is a vampire who wishes to die by the sun’s light.  Sookie has found not only this vampire, but also the one she is supposed to be looking for too.  First though she has to figure out how to get herself free again before she can try to either rescue the other vampire or go tell the Dallas clan where he is being held.  Will a vampire known for killing anyone he has interacted with save her?

I must admit that I made a bit of an oops and read this book after the third book.  I found it to sound a lot like the third book as far as the plot about finding and saving a vampire who has been taken and locked up.  I did like how there seemed to be multiple plots (the vampire being taken, the dead person found in the sheriff’s car, the maenad’s appearance), but I was a bit lost by the maenad’s appearance.  It made some sense, but seemed to be written, more or less, to add more drama between Eric and Sookie.  The book was for the most part easy to follow and was full of adventures.  It also was a book that did keep plugging along, so there were no lulls in the story.  I just thought it sounded way too much like book three (seeing I read that one before this one).  Due to that I will have to push myself a bit more to move on to the fourth book I think, because I will be wondering if Harris is an author who slips into the; write the same thing with different circumstances; writing.  I do like how Harris writes (as I have read a couple other of her books too) so I am willing to give book four a shot.  I have to see if Sookie really ends up still with Bill or not after all.  

3/5 stars (mostly because of it sounding a lot like book three)

This book counts toward the following challenges:  100 Books, 1,000,000 Pages Read, A to Z Title Challenge, Mystery and Suspense Challenge, Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge, and TV Addict Challenge.