Dead as a Doornail: Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery # 5

I love the Southern Vampire books! C. Harris has created a fascinating universe in which the vampires have come out of the coffin, but the shapeshifters, fairies and others definitely have not! This is the 4th in the series and can be read without reading the other books. however, it's much more enjoyable to read the others first, so that the interactions between the major and minor characters are clear.

Harris has created an intrecate polical structure for the different supernaturals ("supes")who either hate, ignore or tolerate the other supes with the vampires being the most organized. Sookie Stackhouse, the telepathic barmaid, has been dragged into vampire politics before (and hated it) and now is about to be heavily involved in werewolf politics - the succession of the packmaster of Shreveport.

After having no love life for most of her life (the local men would rather think she's nuts rather than telepathic), Sookie's current love life is a mess. She is definitely not seeing her first boyfriend, Vampire Bill. Eric, Head vampire in the area and Bill's boss, desperately wants to know what happened when he had amnesia and stayed with Sookie (book #3). Sam, Sookie's boss, is a shapeshifter and interested (but only after she starting dating Bill). Calvin, a werepather from an isolated and very strange small town, is courting her. And Alcide, a werewolf, wants to marry her but he also wants to help his father become the next packmaster of Shreveport.

Sookie's brother Jason now turns into a werepanther during the full moon and someone is shooting the shapeshifters of BonTon.

One of the most interesting things about this universe is that the people accept that vampires exist but refuse to admit that shapeshifters, witches and magic also exist!

The recording is excellent with the reader doing a good job with the different voices. I wish that the other books were also available at Audible!

This was I think the first book to be recorded, and the reading isn't as good as the first 4 books she narrated--- she didn't do a bad job, but the first 4 were better read...

Another great installment from Charlaine Harris, unfortunately the narrators recording isn't as clean as previous books. You can hear her draw in breath or smack her lips between sentences, long pauses as she's reading between lines, the audio seriously could use some cleaning up, wouldn't take to much... Audible books -- please consider editing the audio! It would make listening to this book much better. Other than those technical issues, the books is fun and sets the stage nicely for the next book. Five stars for the book, 2 for the audio.

If you love the Sookie Stackhouse series, this one certainly delivers. There someone shooting weres. If that's not bad enough, attempts are made on Sookies life. New supernatural characters are introduced, but we still hear much from our favorite vampires Eric, Bill, and Pam. Lots of suspense in this installment. Vampire and Were politics are explored and the facinating topic of the "blood tie" is further explored.

Definetly a book that should be read from the start of the series. It's a great series and Johanna Parker does an outstanding job telling this story.

I truly enjoyed this book. I've never read any of the other books in the series but I was never confused or lost. Ms Harris does an wonderful job of giving a quick synopsis of characters and events from previous novels without bogging down the current storyline. I became quickly involved in the alternate Louisanna with vampires,shifters,and weres, and I was enchanted by the southern charm of Sookie Stackhouse.
The narrator was the perfect match for this book. It felt just like Sookie was personally telling me her story.
When I found out no other books were available as audio I went straight to the bookstore to get the first books in the series.

I love the Stackhouse series, #4 being the best. The story is disjointed, with too many characters going in too many different directions. The narration is inconsistent from the other novels - this must have been done first. Accents don't match up and you can hear the narrator swallowing and taking breaths - also her pacing is off.

Simply put - Think of the book this way - "Anne Rice Vampire Cronicles" meets "Harry Potter". THe only bad thing is that Audible doesn't have any of her other books in the series at the moment i'm typing this. Bummer. After listening to this book you'll want to hear more of her work. Quite the captivating little story "Dead as a DoorNail" turned out to be. Now i'm going to be having to make bi- montly checks to see if they've got any more of her books.

I really enjoyed this book in the Sookie series. I think number 3 & 4 were my favorites but this one was also very good. It gets you even deeper into the werewolf and shifter part of the story Bill and Eric are in the book but they are not a main focal point of the story like they have been in the past. You also get to meet Quinn in this book and he seems like a very interesting character. I found this book interesting and funny just like the ones before it, I am waiting on my next credit to see what happens to Sookie next.

I realized quickly that thought this was the earliest book in the series available on Audible, other books had come before. For quite a long time, the book mostly looks back on previous events... some sort of witch war and its fallout, reintroducing characters, etc. Though I would have been lost without it, I think a long-time reader might have been frustrated by the exposition. Myself, I was thinking "that must have been what happened in the last book, when will we find out what's happening in this book?"

Not terribly, much, really. A sniper mystery with a rather unsatisfactory conclusion. Lots and lots of supernatural types lusting after our heroine (a bit overplayed, that). Lots of talking about what happened before this book. Some private detectives that show up and then vanish forever (maybe they come back in the next book, but it irritated me to have them played up heavily and then vanish).

A very good reader, a reasonably engaging story despite its flaws and somewhere, an interesting larger story. Not enough to bring me back, but I had a pleasant time listening.

I absolutely love True Blood so when I saw that this book was on sale I got it immediately. But I just did not love this book. It was ok with a little suspense, some mystery and very few funny parts... But no romance at all. Sookie has like ten supernatural men courting her and she makes out with at least half of them but no real connection. Bill and Eric are almost absent from the story and Alcide's character is a jerk in this story... This book is nice but it is not nearly as sexy/intense/funny/exciting as True Blood.
The narrator is very good although there were some awkward pauses and in the second part of the book there was a moment were she called Claudine, as Claudia (blooper). The story also dragged a little. There were so many character and so many different unrelated things happening that it was kind of difficult to keep up. This story is a lot more about the ware community that vampire. I think I'll stick to True Blood.