All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris (Gollancz)

Harris takes us back to the supernatural world of Sookie Stackhouse, mind-reading, were-tiger-dating friend to vampires.

All Together Dead follows on from the previous novels with the same tightness of prose, strong characters and solid action sequences.

This time there’s also added romance and a terrorist plot. Harris has also cleverly included Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath as the stories are all set in Louisiana.

The Vampire Queen of Louisiana is set to go to trial for the death of her Vampire King husband – unfortunately witnessed by Sookie.

So it’s off to the Vampire Summit for Sookie accompanied by her new boyfriend, the were-tiger Quinn, and a number of vampires that she’d rather not get too close to.

Sookie is also at the summit in her capacity as the Queen’s human mind-reader. It’s in trying to do her job to look out for the Queen’s interests that Sookie gets caught up in a terrorist plot that may or may not be the end of everything.

All Together Dead is another in the supernatural fiction genre, like those of Laurell K Hamilton, which has managed to neatly blend the ordinary with the strange.

Lots of authors have tried to jump on the bandwagon but only a few have managed to stand out for the quality writing.

This is a great series about an interesting character, one that will only get better.

Share this article