In the penultimate novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series—the inspiration for the HBO® original series True Blood—Sookie Stackhouse must work with her first love to clear her current undead flame of murder...

Felipe de Castro, the vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), is in town. It’s the worst possible time for a human body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank. Now it’s up to Sookie and Bill Compton, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who has set out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down. 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