Charlaine Harris
Living Dead in Dallas (2002)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Genre: Mystery (Amateur Detective)
Plot Summary:
This Southern Vampire Mystery focuses on two main storylines, both of which revolve around the main character of the series, Sookie Stackhouse. Sookie is a waitress at the Bon Temps, Louisiana Bar Merlotte's and is also a telepath. Her boss, Sam, is a shape shifter who can change into a collie and her boyfriend, Bill, is a vampire. The first storyline involves the mysterious death of Merlotte's short order cook Lafayette, a flamboyantly gay, African-American man. After his body is placed in the car of one of the town's most prominent police officers, Andy Bellefleur, Sookie begins investigating to find out who really killed Lafayette and, thus, help to clear Andy of suspicion. The second storyline involves Sookie's dealings with the Louisiana vampires. Bill is an investigator for Area 4 in Louisiana and his boss, Eric, who is also a vampire, is the Sheriff of Area 4, second only to the Queen of Louisiana. Eric has loaned Sookie out to a vampire nest i
n Dallas, Texas who have recently had a member of the nest go missing. They use Sookie's telepathic ability to discover, through a waitress at their bar, that the Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire cult, has taken Farrell, the missing vampire. It is then up to Sookie and a fellow human friend of the nest, Hugo, who turns out to be a traitor, to try to save Farrell and stop the cult, which Sookie does. After returning to Bon Temps, Sookie solves the mystery of Lafayette's death by infultrating the sexy-orgy club that killed him. Once all of the mysteries are solved, Sookie and Bill go home and during the course of the evening discover that Andy and his sister, Portia, are actually Bill's descendents. Bill then decides to bestow upon them a generous monetary gift in order to make himself feel better for leaving his young family unattended when he died at such a young age.
Geographical Setting: Louisiana, Texas, United States
Time Period: 2002
Series:
A Southern Vampire Novel
Appeal Characteristics:
The two most important appeal characteristics for this book, and, in general, for the entire series, are plot and characterization. Harris uses realistic situations coupled with the supernatural to draw the reader into the story and entice them to empathize and identify with the main characters. Sookie is someone who every woman who grew up with a bit of hardship can easily identify with and her sudden ability to fit in in a world that most people could never imagine existing allows her to fulfill a fantasy held by most people, to belong in a society of only a chosen few. With stories full of danger, intrigue and puzzles, the pace of the story flows, causing you to become hooked and not want to put the book down. Harris intricately weaves together several stories that flow so seamlessly together that you often forget that you are attempting to solve more than one mystery at the same time. Just as in the everyday world, Sookie's life does not stop simply because a new puzzle h
as come up, instead she must fit solving the puzzle into living her "normal" life. While the story is set in Louisiana and Texas, nothing in the book causes it to be married to those locations. The story could have easily taken place anywhere in the world and thus, setting is not an important appeal characteristic in this instance.
Read-alikes: If you like mysteries set in Louisiana, then you might like Cold Day in July (2002) by Stella Cameron. In this book, a reopened unsolved mystery reveals the hidden secrets of a Louisiana town. If you like mysteries that have a vampire at the center of the story, you might try Hunting Ground (2000) by Charles Grant. Hunting Ground focuses on Detective Ethan Proctor's attempts to solve the murders that happen during his vacation in Atlantic City. Proctor's top suspect is a vampire. If, instead, you would rather focus on the darker side of the supernatural, Laurell K. Hamilton's Cerulean Sins (2003) might be just the book for you. In the 11th book in Hamilton's Anita Blake series, Blake must solve a series of murders in order to clear her shape shifter boyfriend of the crimes. If you would prefer a book where the vampire is the protagonist, then I suggest reading Bloodlist (1990) by P.N. Elrod. This book is the first in a series entitled Vampire Files and the storyline follows former journalist and current vampire, Jack Fleming as he attempts to solve his own murder. If books that focus on telepaths are more your style, then check out Double Trouble Squared (1991) by Kathryn Lasky. In this first book in the Starbuck Family Adventure series, telepathic twin sisters July and Liberty Starbuck must find the source of a voice that, using their telepathy, talks to them.
Red Flags: Sex, violence, the occult, the supernatural
Real Murders (1990)
Author: Charlaine Harris
Genre: Mystery (Amateur Detective)
Plot Summary:
Aurora "Roe" Teagarden is a typical small town librarian. She grew up in Lawrenceton and only left to obtain a degree in library science. After obtaining the degree she imedialtely moved back to Lawrenceton to live a quiet life working as a librarian at the local public library. Roe's boring, non-eventful life is spiced by only one aspect, she belongs to a club called 'Real Murders'. The club consists of several other people in town that enjoy reading,discussing and ocassionaly trying to solve murders that have taken place in the past; murder cases such as Jack the Ripper and the Lizzie Borden case. When Roe discovers a body at the meeting hall, that closely resembles the murder case that the club members were meeting to discuss that night, her life takes a turn from the quiet to the less than mundane. All of the members of the club become murder suspects and everyone is franctically trying to discover the murderer before they end up being the next victim. As the plot untwists, Roe discovers a new murder or murder weapon around every corner. In the midst of trying to solve the murders that keep popping up, Roe is busy working at the library and dating two men at the same time, a first for Roe. Two men that just happen to both be connected with the murders. Who can she trust? Can she trust the men that she is seeing? Her next door neighbors? Her co-workers? Roe's life becomes a mad dash to see if she can discover the murderer before the murderer discovers her.
Geographical Setting: Lawrenceton, Georgia
Time Period: 1990
Series: First in the Aurora Teagarden series
Appeal Characteristics:
The story is very character driven and mainly focuses on the character of Aurora Teagarden. Aurora is a librarian in her everyday life and the book should appeal to those that enjoy reading about ordinary people that are sucked into circumstances that are beyond their normal lives. The murder seems to be obvious but this book provides quite an interesting twist that makes the reader want to see if they can discover the murderer before Roe does. It can be termed a cozy read and should appeal to those that are armchair mystery solvers.
Read-alikes: Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series is similar in tone if not setting, Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity series is similar but features a tad more from the realm of the paranormal, Alexander McCall-Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a cozy with a female detective, Maggie Sefton's Needled to Death features a female detective and heavy emphasis on a hobby (needlepoint), and, given the fact this book won an Agatha Award, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries may be an appropriate suggestion.
Red Flags: The murderers turn out to have S&M tendencies, as well as deriving some
sort of sick pleasure out of committing the murders.
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