A Touch of Dead – Sookie Stackhouse Short Stories

I was really excited to see A Touch of Dead, the new Sookie Stackhouse short story collection, on the shelves in my local bookstore. Although they come from existing Charlaine Harris books it’s nice to have them combined into one volume.

These stories show a side of Sookie that we don’t see in the other Southern Vampire Mystery books. It’s refreshing to see her in different settings with different characters.

Here are the stories included in the book:

1. Fairy Dust (from the book Powers of Detection, 2004)
2. Dracula Night (from the book Many Bloody Returns, 2007)
3. One Word Answer (from the book Bite, 2005)
4. Lucky (from the book Unusual Suspects, 2008)
5. Gift Wrap (from the book Wolfsbane and Mistletoe, 2008)

Here’s a quick summary of each story:

Fairy Dust: Sookie is asked to use her psychic power to investigate the murder of a local fairy. Sookie soon learns that it’s not easy to kill a fairy, which narrows the list of suspects quite a bit. This story contains a good primer for fantasy fans on how to kill supernatural creatures.

Dracula Night: Who knew vampires celebrated the birth of the Original Vampire? Eric throws a big bash for the OV and invites Sookie. But perhaps there’s more on the menu than cheese and crackers.

One Word Answer: While doing some late night yard work with her vampire ex-boyfriend Bill Compton, Sookie is approached by a mysterious man in a limousine. It seems that a relative of hers has died and left everything to Sookie. Told that she needs to travel to New Orleans to claim her fortune, Sookie soon realizes that the mystery man is hiding secrets that could cost someone their life.

Lucky: Sookie once again finds herself in a difficult situation when she agrees to investigate a recent spate of break-ins at a friend’s office. Between vampire problems and magical spells, Sookie discovers something more sinister than your average B & E.

Gift Wrap: Sookie, alone at Christmas, decides to take a walk through the woods. While there she comes upon a gravely injured werewolf. Although she opens her heart and her home to him and attempts to nurse him back to health, this handsome hunk may actually be a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

A Touch of Dead makes a great addition to your Sookie Library and will help tide us over until “Dead In The Family”, the next book in the series, comes out in May 2010.