Dead as a Doornail

Once again, Sookie is using her 'gift' to discover the person behind a rash of violent crimes in the area. However, instead of singling out a killer who killed her grandmother and girls romantically involved with vampires, like in 'Dead Until Dawn,' Sookie's after a sniper, that's unbeknownst to the human community, singling out shifters.

The pressure to discover the killer escalates when local shifters begin to suspect her brother, Jason, is seeking revenge for being bitten and made into a shifter. Yet another vampire steps into her life, courtesy of Eric, when Sam is shot and unable to bartend. Charles, who still sports his pirate garb as a throwback to his human life, gets along with Merlotte's customers and saves Sookie's life when a mysterious man sets her kitchen on fire. Although there are no romantic sparks with the swashbuckling rogues, our heroine's love life is further complicated when her ex, Bill, starts dating another human woman and she meets another willing suitor in Quinn, who shape shifts into a tiger.

Harris's sense of hilarity and sarcasm through Sookie is more welcome and necessary in situations like when she's shot in the shoulder, or finds herself watching an honest-to-God battle between Alcide's father and another werewolf for the position of pack leader.