The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

Bestseller Harris’s delightful collection of all the short works set in the world of her Southern Vampire Mysteries series (the basis for the HBO series True Blood) includes nine stories and one novella featuring telepath and barmaid Sookie Stackhouse and the unusual denizens of Bon Temps, La. Highlights include the novella “Small-Town Wedding,” in which Sookie accompanies her boss Sam Merlotte, a shape-shifter, to his brother’s wedding in a small Texas town, where human residents angry about the emergence of paranormal entities threaten to derail the wedding. “Playing Possum” finds Sookie at a school where a gunman threatens the lives of hundreds of children, and she must use her gift to survive. In the rollicking “Two Blondes,” Sookie joins up with Pam, her vampire boyfriend Eric Northman’s right-hand woman, on a road trip that ends with the two women working as strippers to save their own hides. The hilarious “Dracula Night” has the usually serious Eric giddy as a schoolboy at the possibility of the real Count Dracula appearing at his Halloween party, much to Sookie’s amusement. Fans will relish these stories, and even those new to Sookie’s world will find much to love. Each story features a preface by the author and info on reading order. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary. (Nov.)