Dead and Gone
Charlaine Harris Books
Who’s afraid of the big bad fairy prince? Maybe Sookie Stackhouse should be when she finds out that the fairy prince is after her butt! Here we go (finally!) again with a further episode to the Sookie Stackhouse series and this one is “Dead and Gone”. 9th in the Southern Vampire Mysteries series so let’s take a look-see under the bonnet and assess the workings, shall we?
For those of you who don’t know, Dead and Gone is set in a quiet town in Louisiana named Bon Temps. I say quiet but all is not what it would seem. Mmm maybe quiet is not the right word but it will suffice.
On the whole everyone tends to get along relatively well, with the occasional mishap thrown into the mix, however. In this particular episode, Sookie (the main female protagonist) finds out that her brother Jason has been accused of brutally murdering his estranged wife (a Were-panther). Furthermore, she – Sookie – is the target of a big bad fairy prince, which I’ve alluded to already and you’d know that if you were paying attention.
So Sookie our heroine has her plate filled, but then this is what we’ve come to expect, and we know she will deal with it all with ease and take things in her stride, or do we?
For you romantics out there, how about Sookies’ love life… Is she going to settle for Eric or is Bill Compton going to be his masterful self and win her over again? Its all happening in backwater Bon Temps! And if you thought I was going to even give you a snippet of the outcome, then you are, I’m afraid, mistaken.
Sookie is though being stand-offish as is her normal way. Oops I let that snippet out of the bag. No more though. You will either have to guess, or get the book.
In contrast to the last book of the series – From Dead to Worse – this book is less detailed and more to the point. This may not suit all tastes actually because part of Charlaine Harris’ gift is the detail she puts into her characters. She has an extraordinary talent for weaving the relationships of different characters together with one another, but in Dead and Gone, this is less so. The art of weaving is less on show – rather the weaving falls apart just a bit.
I – at times – was left wondering what about such and such, what happened to them or to that? There seems to have been many gaps left that were not plugged, but then this leaves it open for the next book to do its job and seal the holes so maybe I’m rushing to make that judgment call a bit too soon here.
No matter what though I will always love Sookie! She can be as non-committal as she wishes to be – I can’t help but love her. And due to the fast-paced nature of the book, even though I was left feeling not entirely fulfilled, there is never a dull moment, and you just want to keep on turning those pages. There are new characters introduced to breathe fresh life into Bon Temps and there are still the old favorites there to keep us smiling and feeling warm inside.
So there we have it – my resume of Dead and Gone, short and to the point, a bit like the book I’m reviewing really. It’s a pity the book is not longer but what it does mean is that we are frothing at the mouth (well, almost) for the next book to be on the shelves.
We’ve not long to wait either as the next book – A Touch of Dead – is due out in October 2009. Mmmm I wonder what’s in store for us then? Can’t wait!
Dead and Gone