A Touch of Dead

Title: A Touch of Dead
Author: Charlaine Harris
Rating: 4 stars

Can't get enough Sookie Stackhouse? Wish you could know what happened to our favorite telepath inbetween the books in the series? Well, look no further as Charlaine Harris has combined all the Sookie-centered short stories into one book.


A Touch of Dead contains five short stories about Sookie Stackhouse, the telepathic waitress from Bon Temps, Louisiana who can't seem to get away from the supernatural.

The first short story, "Fairy Dust," takes place after Dead to the World. It's about the fairy triplets Claudine (Sookie's Fairy godmother), Claude and Claudette. Claudine and Claude enlist the help of Sookie to determine the murderer of their sister, Claudette.

The next story, "Dracula Night," takes places right before Dead as a Doornail. Eric Northman, the vampire Sheriff of Area Five invites Sookie to the birthday celebration of Dracula. Eric goes completely crazy in preparations (Think Linus in "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown"), hoping that Dracula will make an appearance to the party. However, The Lord of Darkness may or may not be what Eric had expected.

The third story in the book is "One Word Answers." It takes place after Dead as a Doornail. This is when Sookie finds out the fate of her cousin, Hadley from the half-demon lawyer, Mr. Cataliades. However, a vampiric limo driver and a surprising passenger is sure to make this this evening an interesting one.

Next, there is "Lucky," which takes place after All Together Dead. Sookie along with her new roommate, the witch Amelia Broadway, look into the mystery of the insurance agents in Bon Temps and why all but one is having a lot of bad luck.

The last story in the book is "Gift Warp." It takes place before Dead and Gone. It's Christmas Eve and Sookie is spending it alone. Or so she thought. She finds a wounded Were in her woods and the night turns out to be a rather satisfying one.

I enjoyed having all the Sookie Stackhouse stories in one convenient location instead of having to find them in their respected anthologies. I absolutely loved it. The reason I gave it 4 stars (and not 5), was because I felt there could have been more. I wanted more. I craved it. This is what happens when you have an addiction to a book series. This also means the author has done a good job creating her literary world.

The book is short (less than 200 pages) so it's something that can be read easily over the weekend. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the Sookie Stackhouse series and/or Tru Blood and wants to know just a little bit more of Sookie's adventures.