Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face to-face with a beastly creature that gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it).

The point is: they saved her life. So when one of the bloodsuckers asks for a favor, she obliges - and soon Sookie's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave and let the humans go unharmed. But that's easier said than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly.... Another wonderful Sookie Stackhouse outing, fast-paced and never flagging. This one sees Sookie and Bill sent by Eric to Dallas because he's "rented" her out to the nest leader there, Stan, so she can use her telepathic gift to find out what happened to a missing vampire. This leads to the Fellowship, a truly scary psuedo-Christian cult that's very anti-vampire. There's also a scary Maenad hanging around the woods at home, demanding tribute, and poor Lafayette, the flamboyantly gay cook from the bar where Sookie works, turns up dead in Andy Bellefleur's car and Sookie's determined to find out who killed him.

Mystery, excitement, a bit of violence, some steamy make-up sex and new additions to the eccentric and ecclectic cast don't throw Sookie off her stride. As a character she's great, not the least bit annoying and totally understandable, despite being in an alien situation. As long as Sookie keeps it up, I can't see myself getting bored with these books