Monday, May 21, 2012

Just finished reading...

...DEADLOCKED, the twelfth installment of the Sookie Stackhouse series.


I have read all of Charlaine Harris' Sookie books which are the basis for HBO's wildly popular series "True Blood." And I have watched every episode of "True Blood" but creator Alan Ball ("Six Feet Under") has deviated significantly from Harris' narrative. The consequence for my poor imagination is that these two parallel worlds bleed together in my head. When watching the TV show, one thing I do miss is the amateur detective/Nancy Drew quality of the books. Sookie is always presented with a crime and a mystery that needs to be solved. True, most of them involve her, but that makes the need to solve the mystery all the more urgent. And this most recent book has Sookie trying to figure out a murder. Of course the deeper she digs, the more she learns of plots and schemes around her, some that betray her trust.

Harris has said that DEADLOCKED is the second to last Sookie book that will be written. She intends to stop at thirteen (pun intended, I am sure). And although she solves the immediate murder and plots that involve her supernatural family, this book leaves Sookie in limbo with her love life. A constant thread through all the books has been Sookie's relationship with first Bill Compton, vampire, and then with a succession of werewolves, were-tigers, and another vampire. Sookie is such a likable, sweet character, and we end up rooting for her to find happiness.

The series is meant to be fun and this book is the light, speedy read that all the other books are. This is not gourmet literature, it is a hamburger and fries and a cold lemonade on a hot summer day.

Recommend? Sure, if you have read all the other Sookie books. If you haven't, give them a try. They are fluffy and entertaining.

http://www.charlaineharris.com/

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