Dead and Gone

Zusatztext Praise for #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels It's the kind of book you look forward to reading before you go to bed! thinking you're only going to read one chapter! and then you end up reading seven.Alan Ball! executive producer of True Blood Vivid! subtle! and funny in her portrayal of southern life. Entertainment Weekly Charlaine Harris has vividly imagined telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse and her small-town Louisiana milieu! where humans! vampires! shapeshifters! and other sentient critters live...Her mash-up of genres is delightful! taking elements from mysteries! horror stories! and romances. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The series continues to be inventive and funny with an engaging! smart! and sexy heroine. The Denver Post Blending action! romance! and comedy! Harris has created a fully functioning world so very close to our own! except! of course! for the vamps and other supernatural creatures. The Toronto Star Informationen zum Autor Charlaine Harris Klappentext The werewolves and shifters come out of the closet and throw the small town of Bon Temps into a tailspin in the ninth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series-the inspiration for the HBO® original series True Blood. Except for cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, folks in Bon Temps, Louisiana, knew little about vamps-and nothing about Weres. Until now. The Weres and shifters have finally revealed their existence to the ordinary world, and the backlash may have claimed the life of someone Sookie knew. But her determination to find out who is responsible for the murder is put aside in the face of a far greater danger. A race of unhuman beings-older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves-is preparing for war. And Sookie will find herself an all-too-human pawn in their battle... Chapter Three The closer I got to the vampire bar, the more my pulse picked up. This was the downside to the blood bond I had with Eric Northman. I knew I was going to see him, and I was simply happy about it. I should have been worried, I should have been apprehensive about what he wanted, I should have asked a million questions about the velvet-wrapped bundle, but I just drove with a smile on my face. Though I couldn't help how I felt, I could control my actions. Out of sheer perversity, since no one had told me to come around to the employees' entrance, I entered through the main door. It was a busy night at Fangtasia, and there was a waiting crowd on benches inside the first set of doors. Pam was at the podium. She smiled at me broadly, showing a little fang. (The crowd was delighted.) I'd known Pam for a while now, and she was as close to a friend as I had among the vampires. Tonight the blonde vampire was wearing the obligatory filmy black dress, and she'd camped it up with a long, sheer black veil. Her white fingernails were polished scarlet. My friend, Pam said, came out from behind the podium to hug me. I was surprised but pleased, and gladly hugged her back. She'd spritzed on a little perfume to eclipse the faint, rather dry, smell of vampire. Have you got it? she whispered in my ear. Oh, the bundle? It's in my purse. I lifted my big brown shoulder bag by its straps. Pam gave me a look I couldn't interpret through the veil. It appeared to be an expression that compounded exasperation and affection. You didn't even look inside? I haven't had time, I said. It wasn't that I hadn't been curious. I simply hadn't had the leisure to think about it. Pam gave me a long look of appraisal. Go back to Eric's office and hand him the bundle, she said. Leave it wrapped. No matter who's there. And don't handle it like it was a garden tool he'd left outside, either. I...

Praise for #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels

“It’s the kind of book you look forward to reading before you go to bed, thinking you’re only going to read one chapter, and then you end up reading seven.”—Alan Ball, executive producer of True Blood

“Vivid, subtle, and funny in her portrayal of southern life.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Charlaine Harris has vividly imagined telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse and her small-town Louisiana milieu, where humans, vampires, shapeshifters, and other sentient critters live...Her mash-up of genres is delightful, taking elements from mysteries, horror stories, and romances.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“The series continues to be inventive and funny with an engaging, smart, and sexy heroine.”—The Denver Post

“Blending action, romance, and comedy, Harris has created a fully functioning world so very close to our own, except, of course, for the vamps and other supernatural creatures.”—The Toronto Star

Autorentext

Charlaine Harris

Klappentext

The werewolves and shifters come out of the closet and throw the small town of Bon Temps into a tailspin in the ninth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series-the inspiration for the HBO® original series True Blood.

Except for cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse, folks in Bon Temps, Louisiana, knew little about vamps-and nothing about Weres. Until now. The Weres and shifters have finally revealed their existence to the ordinary world, and the backlash may have claimed the life of someone Sookie knew. But her determination to find out who is responsible for the murder is put aside in the face of a far greater danger. A race of unhuman beings-older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves-is preparing for war. And Sookie will find herself an all-too-human pawn in their battle...

Leseprobe
Chapter Three The closer I got to the vampire bar, the more my pulse picked up. This was the downside to the blood bond I had with Eric Northman. I knew I was going to see him, and I was simply happy about it. I should have been worried, I should have been apprehensive about what he wanted, I should have asked a million questions about the velvet-wrapped bundle, but I just drove with a smile on my face.

Though I couldn’t help how I felt, I could control my actions. Out of sheer perversity, since no one had told me to come around to the employees’ entrance, I entered through the main door. It was a busy night at Fangtasia, and there was a waiting crowd on benches inside the first set of doors. Pam was at the podium. She smiled at me broadly, showing a little fang. (The crowd was delighted.)

I’d known Pam for a while now, and she was as close to a friend as I had among the vampires. Tonight the blonde vampire was wearing the obligatory filmy black dress, and she’d camped it up with a long, sheer black veil. Her white fingernails were polished scarlet.

“My friend,” Pam said, came out from behind the podium to hug me. I was surprised but pleased, and gladly hugged her back. She’d spritzed on a little perfume to eclipse the faint, rather dry, smell of vampire. “Have you got it?” she whispered in my ear. “Oh, the bundle? It’s in my purse.” I lifted my big brown shoulder bag by its straps. Pam gave me a look I couldn’t interpret through the veil. It appeared to be an expression that compounded exasperation and affection. “You didn’t even look inside?”

“I haven’t had time,” I said. It wasn’t that I hadn’t been curious. I simply hadn’t had the leisure to think about it.

Pam gave me a long look of appraisal. “Go back to Eric’s office and hand him the bundle,” she said. “Leave it wrapped. No matter who’s there. And don’t handle it like it was a garden tool he’d left outside, either.”

I gave her the look righ…