Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris (From The Northern Echo)

Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris

12:18pm Friday 16th July 2010

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Sookie Stackhouse is like TV marmite at the moment; you either love her or you hate her. Just check out Snoop Dogg’s ‘Oh Sookie’ on YouTube to see the full extent of even a hip hop artist’s love for the HBO series True Blood (the video might make you die inside but it is quite hilarious). As ever us Brits have to wait a while longer before we can watch the third season of True Blood. The good news is Bon Temps fans will have the new Sookie Stackhouse novel from Charlaine Harris to sink their fangs into while they wait.

Dead in the Family is the tenth installment in the vampire mystery series. This time it really is all about the family. From the very first book we found Sookie had lost many of her close relatives and struggled to hold onto the family she had left. Now her family is appearing in the most unusual places. Her fairy cousin turns to Sookie in times of grief, strange considering he had never taken a shine to Sookie, but the biggest shock comes when he asks to move in with her! Her second cousin is brought to Bon Temps in hope that Sookie can teach the young telepath how to control the unusual ability that they share. Suddenly Sookie has a full house and her vampire boyfriend the juggle with – Eric Northman.

As a vampire sheriff, Eric has taken pride in his leadership and control but that gets all thrown off balance when his own share of family problems hits town. His maker and a brother he never knew he had disrupt the lives of both Sookie and Eric’s ‘Fangtasia’ vampire staff.

Bill Compton may be a thing of the past for Sookie but she is deeply concerned for him when he is seriously ill from silver poisoning. So she makes it her mission to find Bill’s vampire family, if there are any to find, to save her ex-boyfriends life (or afterlife so to speak).

Of course nothing in Bon Temps is what it seems and as we have come to learn in the novels that vampire and fairies do not mix and certainly not when throwing werewolves into the equation. As a friend of The Pack, Sookie can’t refuse to say no when the werewolves need to use her land. But what they discover in the woods keeps Sookie on edge as it becomes apparent that Bon Temps is not the safest place to be right now.

Dead in the Family will not fail to amaze Sookie Stackhouse fans as it continues the scandals, mystery and humour that we all love about the books. Charlaine Harris creates a world of fantasy that works. There are vampire politics and racism that signifies political issues of the real world. Sookie’s love life demonstrates that it is not always a ‘Bella and Edward’ happy ending. And we all face family issues (maybe not to the extreme of fairies and telepaths).

Whether it’s on your TV screens or grasped in your hands, you’ll never want to leave Bon Temps.

Laura Symonds

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