A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Ace (October 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441017835
• ISBN-13: 978-0441017836

A TOUCH OF DEAD was released yesterday (Oct. 6th) and you can bet I was at Barnes and Noble, membership card in hand, the minute they unlocked their doors. Can you tell I'm a fan?

I knew going in that this book was a collection of all the Sookie short stories ever written. I already have two books by various authors that include a Sookie story (Many Bloody Returns, Wolfsbane and Mistletoe) but I'm a collector and I had to have this book.

I'm glad I bought it, I love Sookie and I want every sip of her and the vampires of Area 5, but I am a little disappointed in it. First of all, it is only five stories(in all fairness, it isn't hard to figure that out before you buy it. I just thought it would be more). The book retails for $24 here(USA) and $30 in Canada and it's only 5 short stories. I felt a little cheated.

Next, I hate when a short doesn't match what happens in the book. Call me a dork, but I get in to what I'm reading and I want it to all fit together. This is why I have problems watching movies based on comic books. It's never the way it's supposed to be. Yes, I understand you have to add and change things to make a comic into a full blown film, but it erks me. I know I'm in the wrong, but that's me (I can tolerate it in TRUE BLOOD because Ball did such an amazing job with the changes). In the story "One Word Answer" someone died and that someone also died in the book but in an entirely different way. Arrgghh!

Charlaine Harris did tell us in the introduction that sometimes she succeeded in creating shorts of Sookie's life seamlessly, and other time she did not. She admits that it may not fit in exactly with the series and so I forgive her. I love Harris's writing enough to forgive her even if she didn't warn me. She is an outstanding author and I haven't loved Vampires so much since Anne Rice.

I did find a booboo in the text. On page 153, she says "Greg had his hands up" but it most certainly should read "John" as Greg was no where near that scene! But as an aspiring novelist, I know how impossible it is NOT to make those types of mistakes. Blame the copy editor, lol. No biggie, any reader with half a brain cell will understand it's supposed to be John and move right along.

In conclusion, the stories are fun to read, well written and creative. I am just not a big fan of shorts. I like my Sookie in large doses and I need more Vampires! Book 10 can't come fast enough!