Vampire Romp - Bev Russell, Library Director

(This column appeared in the November 18, 2007, Star-Herald)

 

Ok, I will admit it. I just do not get vampire books although I did become a "Dark Shadows" groupie when I was younger. I told a friend about my vampire book issue last week. To my astonishment, she responded that she and her daughter loved vampire books. She even asked who the author was because they were always looking for new authors. Go figure?

I must admit that my range of expertise about this particular genre is limited. I read Anne Rice once. Just to try to understand her popularity. A few years ago, I read a Jim Butcher book and enjoyed it for the most part. I had not intended to read a vampire book this week. Ms. Harris writes several other mystery series, and I actually thought I was reading one of those books. Much to my surprise, I selected one from her Southern Vampire Series.

Charlaine Harris lives in Arkansas but grew up in the Mississippi Delta. (There must be something about the South and vampires. Southern Gothic is becoming a sub-genre of its own.) Her first series was about a librarian, Aurora Teagarden. Although her first Teagarden mystery garnered her an Agatha nomination, this series did not attract large readership.

Harris’ next series, the Lily Bard series, was much darker. Set in Shakespeare, Arkansas, the heroine is a rape survivor as is Ms. Harris. All of these books use a Shakespearean theme as a plot device. This series has not attracted the wide popularity of Harris’ vampire series to this point.

Finally, Ms. Harris says that she "decided to write the book she’d always wanted to write." The Sookie Stackhouse books are not traditional mysteries, science fiction or romance but a combination of those genres. Sookie is a telepathic Louisiana barmaid, who befriends vampires, werewolves and assorted other creatures of the night. She is a human, who wants to remain a human but is gradually getting "sucked" (pardon the pun) into the vampire world. Each novel draws her (get it, draws her) a little further into their sphere.

In "All Together Dead" the vampire queen of Louisiana hires Sookie to read human minds at a vampire summit. (Sookie can not read vampire minds.) In order to protect the humans at the conference, Sookie must allow herself to be "nibbled" by vampire Eric. This enables her to have a stronger sense of what vampires are thinking; however, it also makes her more susceptible to Eric’s control.

The Sookie Stackhouse mysteries are not dark stories by vampire standards. Ms. Harris calls them "cozies with teeth". (I like her sense-of-humor.) Although readers looking for a good scare won’t find it with this Southern Vampire Series, these books are becoming quite popular and may even become the basis for a new HBO series.

Another popular series by Charlaine Harris concerns a young woman, Harper Connelly, who after being struck by lightning now has the ability to find corpses. This is the series that I thought I was reading when I picked up "All Together Dead". If you like your cozies with teeth or think you might enjoy a bloodless romp through the supernatural, give Charlaine Harris a try. (Well, maybe not completely bloodless.)

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