Description: Sookie's boyfriend has been very distant. Now she's off to Mississippi to mingle with the underworld at Club Dead--a little haunt where the vampire elite go to chill out. But when she finally finds Bill--caught in an act of betrayal--she's not sure whether to save him or sharpen some stakes. Original.

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Children's Literature Review: Telepath Sookie Stackhouse again is in over her neck in this third novel of The Southern Vampire series. A mixture of mystery and romance, Dead Until Dark (Ace, 2001) garnered the Anthony Award, and Living Dead In Dallas (Ace 2002/VOYA October 2002) achieved bestseller status, but Harris's series falters here. Suffering from weak editing and a disjointed plot, it reads like a bad Harlequin Romance. Sookie wants to marry her bloodsucking boyfriend, Bill, but instead finds herself abandoned for a new fanged flame. Stakes are later raised when Bill is kidnapped by Nosferatu, who covets the database of undead he has compiled for Louisiana's vampire queen. Sookie must team with a werewolf and Bill's night-stalking boss, Eric, to discover his whereabouts. With unexpected help from Bubba-a vampire who was Elvis in life-Sookie rescues her lover from death's silver chains, only to dismiss him as the plot buries itself. Harris's series takes itself too gravely to its rival, the campy Buffy the V...

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