All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

Title: All Together Dead
Author: Charlaine Harris
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
5/5 Stars

Even from across the pond, Charlaine has managed to suck me back in (no pun intended). As I progress through this series, I seem to take less and less time to read each book, which is proving quite dangerous for my bank account! Ok, maybe somewhat of an exaggeration considering these books are paperback romance in the extreme, but it worries me that I seem to have become dependent on Sookie, much like an addict.

This book takes place after Hurricane Katrina has hit Louisiana. It's quite heart-wrenching to realize that Katrina has happened to these people as well. What I found interesting about that was we never had a time-frame for when Sookie's story was taking place. I always assumed it was somewhat in the future, not in a science-fiction kind of way, but more in a "this could happen to you tomorrow" kind of way. Now, however, with the inclusion of the Hurricane, we seem to be in a parallel world to our own. The story is no loner one that could possibly take place in a few years time. It's now on the same track as our world, just with a few supes.

As I was saying, the story begins after the Hurricane, and the vampires of New Orleans are hurting because they've lost property and members of their ranks, and Sophie-Anne, queen of Louisiana, is about to go to trial for murdering her husband. As a matter of fact, she didn't kill her husband with her own hands and she was acting in self-defense after he began an all out war to stage a coup and take over Louisiana. But the courts don't know that, and Sophie-Anne, Sookie, Eric, Bill and a whole bunch more vamps have to go to a vampire conference in Rhodes, IL (holla!) to sort everything out.

I won't go into much more detail of the story, but truly, this was one of the most thrilling plots yet in the series. All kinds of shady politics go on inside the Pyramids of Gizeh hotel, and it's up to Sookie to use her powers to get the queen out alive. I thought that the development of Sookie's relationships with Eric, Quinn, and Bill was wonderful in this book. In the previous book, I was upset by the fact that Sookie could just write Bill off, pretend he didn't exist and never interact with him. Here, she was able to actually talk civilly with Bill. I thought the relationships became more real. The same goes for Quinn and Eric. Both become more questionable, less perfect, which makes everyone seem more realistic.

The book was, by all means, the best so far, and were it not for the extensive back story in the first six books, I would recommend this to everyone! Oh what the heck, everyone should read them all! Alright, don't read them to your kids. But seriously: read them.

ISBN: 978-0441019380
Price: $7.99, paperback
Pages: 352