Dead Reckoning

By: Charlaine Harris

Narrated by: Johanna Parker

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover, Eric Northman, and his "child", Pam, are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot - which is much more complicated than she knows.

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©2011 Charlaine Harris, Inc. (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC

Antiques RoadShow, Burned Hair & Elvis

Angie (Brandon's Wife)

I purchased this book 2 hours after it became available. It already had around 25-5 star ratings, on a 10.5 hour book. So that tells us that if people would leave actual ratings based on the book, it would score a LOT less.
I give it 2 stars because it's 100% better than book 10, but still worlds away from the brilliance of the first 4 books. After book 4, it's been a slow decline downhill. The past few books, the pace has picked up & the snowball is plummeting downhill at an avalanche's speed.
Do you remember when you were a kid & you waited til the last minute to do your homework? It's the night before a big essay is due, or the morning of, & you hurry to do it, making sure you reach that word count that the teacher assigned? That's this book! No thought went into it. No imagination! It was SO predictable! Just because you're a best selling author doesn't mean that you can turn out any gibberish & it'll be brilliant.
My title sums it up. Cleaning the attic....who didn't know that was going to turn out? (I'll try not to give any spoilers, yet still complain about certain scenes.)
The bar is fire bombed. OK, good starter, lots of action coming...well, that scene lasted a few minutes & leads into an hour of Sookie whining about her singed hair & everyone trying to fix it. I mean, the girl isn't bald! The ends were a little singed!!
It's very obvious that Harris has been given the green light to use Bubba's real name & she's certainly taking advantage of it! (Getting that word count)
Harris is trying to keep ALL fans happy. Team Bill, yah, let's put Sookie naked & in his hidey hole! Team Sam, let's throw them him a bone too. Team Alcide...don't even get me started! I have only 2000 characters in this review! Let's just say, I was actually embarrassed for Ms.Harris at this point.
Before I end this, I must offer Sookie some advise: If a vampire is in your house, about to eat your fairy relative who is injured & unconscious, RESEND HIS INVITATION!

36 of 42 people found this review helpful

I love Sookie, but this book was a bummer.

Ok, to clarify I did like the book. How could I not? Its a Sookie Stackhouse book. Anything new about her life is a great thing. But It didn't have the usual fun twists as her other books. It was like she was in a depression the whole time There was no really "make you laugh" moments in this book. It's started with her in a funk, and ended even funkier. Plus although it opened new story lines, bringing new questions to light, there was no answers, no closure, only leaving you wonder, what happened. On the bright side I guess it could make a great intro to her next book. It's a "must read" being it's part of the series, just not a great part. As a devout Sookie Stackhouse lover, I'm going to hang in there and hope the next book gets better. They all can't be 5 stars I guess...... Right?

12 of 14 people found this review helpful

A Somber Sookie

My first thought after reading the book was “that’s it?” I did not feel like much happened apart from setting the stage for the next book.


I enjoy this series, but am disappointed with this book. The tone of the book is quite somber; the fun factor is absent. Sookie is in a funk for the whole book and is very judgmental towards both herself and the non-humans in her life for not being Christian enough. It felt most of the book was her mentally beating herself up for choices necessary to survive. I’d like to see her grow a bit more and embrace her whole self and her gifts rather than just glorifying her human side.

24 of 29 people found this review helpful

Spoiler Review

Let me begin by saying that I am a huge fan of Sookie. And no one has ever embodied a character more than Johanna Parker. But I became a little disillusioned with the last book (#10). It didn't feel as though the story was quite complete or as much care and consideration given to the characters. This feeling was amplified in this book. In my opinion, Dead Reckoning is just a teaser for the remaining 2 books in the series. There were so many unanswered questions and incomplete storylines that I feel like I have to read the next 2 books just to finish this book's storyline. Does anyone else wonder how unsatisfied they will feel if for some reason, this series doesn't continue? It has happened before... SPOILER ALERT!!! As for the book itself, I was disappointed with the problems between Amanda and Sookie. I'm sure it means something to the future of the series but I felt this was out of character for both. And what's up with Alcide - that was totally weird. In the last book, Eric was becoming more open and honest with Sookie but now he's back to the way he was before they were married. Is this just to make the readers accept a breakup??? After all, Eric was the one who insisted Sookie know about Bill's affair and saw the consequences. Are we really supposed to believe that he would so stupid as to do the same thing? I also noticed quite a few time line continuity issues. There were a few in the last book but so many more in this one. Overall, it was good but definitely not the quality of the earlier books.

24 of 29 people found this review helpful

Bummer

I love Sookie - but I felt that this book was just sad and the door way to get rid of both Eric and Bill from her life. I have always felt (not that I'm happy about it) that Harris intends for Sookie to end up with Sam and that's what this book was all about starting. Everything with Alcied and Amelia was just wrong. These are two people Sookie used to be able to depend on and Harris has just made them stupid and weak. So sick of the whole Fairy storyline. Her cousin is a jerk and I don't trust the wimpy uncle. The stuff with the demon lawyer and her gran was so out of left field and not in a good way. The one bright spoot was the friendship between Pam and Soopkie.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Is this it?

I was so disappointed in this Sookie installment. The only things that actually happened in this book were predictable and poorly developed. I love reading a series but only when each book is an entire book, not just a small part of one novel broken into pieces to sell more.

14 of 17 people found this review helpful

This one didn't live up to my anticipation!

I have to agree with other readers that this book fell a little "short". I did not like this "woe is me" Sookie. The entire story seemed to be gloomy and drug on a bit. I have always enjoyed the humorous side of Bon Temps and it's characters, but this entire story was so serious and most of my favorite characters were in a depressing mood. I agree that it seems Charlaine is preparing readers for the inevitable split of Eric and Sookie. I am definitely a E/S fan, but even I would agree w/ a split if the final books continue in this mood. The Alcide scene was bizarre and didn't seem to fit in. I was excited to see the return of Amelia, and saddened by their friendship ending. I hate the Bill/Sookie scenes and felt the hidey hole episode was completely unnecessary! I will without doubt read the next books in the series b/c I love Charlaine and Sookie. Johanna Parker made the entire series for me. I listened to her prior to buying any books. She is excellent! I look forward to the future books and hate that we have to wait another year:(

17 of 21 people found this review helpful

Narrator brings this story to life

I'm always eager to find out what's going on with Sookie and, as always, it was a pleasure to slip into her mind and story again. What I never realized was how much animation is brought to Sookies story by the narrator Johanna Parker! I was introduced the series by audio and listened to all of it-never read a word-until I read the advanced chapter for Dead Reckoning on the web site. It sounded so wrong and flat in my head I actually tried to mentally give it Ms. Parkers voice and ended up laughing at how bad a job I did with it compared to her. Kudos Ms. Parker!

21 of 27 people found this review helpful

just bad

I read the reviews and I bought the book anyway. I know its hard, but my advice is don't bother. Save the credit and remember the series well.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Not the best...

I have to agree that this book was slow to develop, predictable, and simply fails to deliver. SO disappointed. I am a faithful Sookie fan and have loved this series (up until book 10, which was also a disappointment). The last two books have seemed half hearted at best. I do love the narrator, who gives such personality to all the characters, especially Sookie. I hate to say that it may be time to pull the plug on this series.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful