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Living Dead In Dallas (A Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mystery) by Charlaine Harris
01/05/2004 . Source: Donna Jones 
pub: Orbit/Times Warner. 279 page paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-84149-300-7. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.OrbitBooks.co.uk and www.TimeWarnerBooks.co.uk
Sookie Stackhouse, now indebted to the vampire nest headed by Eric the Viking-esque vamp, has been called in to take up a task. Before she can even get to the vampires, she is attacked late one night by a clawed being in the woods and poisoned by the beast.
Eric's vampires help to cure Sookie of her injuries and then told about her mission to Dallas. 'On Loan' from the Louisiana nest to the Dallas horde, she has to use her telepathic skills to find out the fate of one of their 'brothers' who has mysteriously gone missing and hasn't been seen or heard from for five days.
Even before all this happens, the much appreciated and liked gay short order cook, Lafayette, is found dead in the patrol car of Andy Bellefleur. Will Sookie help him to prove his innocence and find the missing vamp? Only time will tell, but you can bet there'll be 'fangs' aplenty!
Unfortunately, Charlaine Harris' second outing with the Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mysteries is a pale anaemic shadow of the first for various reasons.
The characters have not moved on much from the first book. They are under-developed and shallow. Sookie still questions whether her gift is a blessing or a curse to the tune of her own simpering sobs. Sookie is one minute modest and shy, the next curt and flirtatious making Harris' main character appear to have a serious split-personality problem. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if the main character weren't the voice we hear continually, being written solely in first person.
The story is hindered by clumsy dialogue, forced out at times for the sake of speaking and coupled with the shallow characters, the book is stale and bland compared to its predecessor.
The plot is much the same as the previous, making the whole series an exercise in formulaic writing rather than an adventure in exploring the lengths and depths of the characters and the premise. Bill and Sookie have their ups and downs, they break up, they get back together and have fantastical sex. He bites her and she sobs some more. Blah-de-blah-de-blah! It's pretty over-rated stuff.
Harris follows a set pattern of writing that Sookie has problems close to home involving her friends at the bar and then simultaneously she is called upon by vampires. There is the expected sensationalist sex, which has now gotten dull in the second of the series and to be honest, I was bored.
While it is an easy read (I took one afternoon to finish it!) it's hardly a page turner. You aren't champing at the bit for more and I certainly won't be waiting with baited breath for the final book in the series, 'Club Dead', to come out here. The worst thing about this book and my overall problem with it, is that this second book in the series was a missed opportunity of mammoth proportions.
Donna Jones
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