Sookie Stackhouse has a small problem: she’s a telepathic barmaid in a small Louisiana town. When you can read minds, you don’t tend to date much, if at all. In fact, youtend to know way too much about what people are thinking, even when you don’t want to. But that’s nothing compared to Bill Compton’s problem: he’s a vampire. When the two meet, it’s trouble for everyone involved, especially after you throw in Sookie’s friends and coworkers, vampire groups (nicknamed fang-bangers), vampire hunters, big-city vampires with loose morals, and a serial killer that’s striking a little too close to home for comfort.

When Bill walks into Merlotte’s Bar in Bon Temps, Louisiana, he immediately gains Sookie’s undivided attention. Not just because he’s a vampire, who’ve gained the same sort of outted status as gays and lesbians in this slightly off-kilter take on the world, but because he’s one of the very few people whose mind she can’t read. Attracted to him for the very reason that he’s a mystery and safe from her abilities, Sookie gets caught up in Bill’s world all too quickly. First by protecting him from some nasty people out to bleed him dry for their own purposes, and then by outright dating him. Needless to say, most normal folks, Sookie’s enigmatic boss and owner of the bar, Sam Merlotte, disapprove of this relationship. But what does she care? They all call her Crazy Sookie anyway.

After that, things get hectic. One of Sookie’s coworkers is found dead, in a way which implicates a vampire, if not Bill specifically. Soon, the murder is tied in to at least one other identical death, and then another. Bill, though protesting innocence, is still targeted as a suspect. And we all know what frightened humans do to things that they distrust… Can we say torch party?

Add into this Bill’s former friends, a group of unsavory vampiric characters drifting through town, with all of his powers and none of his ethics, and a real taste for the wild side. Then toss in a brain-damaged vampire named Bubba, who can’t stand to be reminded of his mortal life… but that sure would explain all those sightings of a man supposedly dead of a drug overdose. Then stir what might very well be a werewolf. And Sookie’s right in the middle, trying to figure out who killed those women, before she becomes the next victim. Suddenly, she’s wishing for the quiet life she used to have.

This is a book which, frankly, shouldn’t work. It’s a romantic Southern vampire murder mystery with a telepathic barmaid as the narrator, set in Lousiana. It’s the backwoods, smalltown, slightly inbred cousin to Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, and with so many disparate elements being thrown into one pot, it’s a wonder any of them survive. But survive, and thrive, they do. I said that this book shouldn’t work, so the surprise is that it does. It’s fun, accessible, and quirky, possessing a cynical sense of humor and a wry outlook on life. It flouts convention with a vampire named Bill, a vampire club named Fangtasia, and the aforementioned fang-banging groupies who get high on the experience and the romantic lure of the supernatural. It’s a fun read, thoroughly enjoyable in a down-to-Earth manner. This isn’t the poetic sensuality of Anne Rice, or the earthy complexity of Laurell K. Hamilton, or the hard-boiled adventure of Tanya Huff. This is a take on the vampire mythos I can’t remember seeing before, and it’s a refreshing reminder that we haven’t completely tapped out that vein yet. We’ve seen vampire romances, vampire mysteries, vampire detectives, and just about everything else, but in this case, it’s the crockpot blending of the various ingredients that makes *Dead Until Dark* something a little different, and a good deal of fun.

So if you like vampires, want something that’s not the usual Gothic lace-and-creamy-throats, and have a few hours to kill, you can do a lot worse than to give this book a shot. The author, also known for her straight mystery series set in the town of Shakespeare, has crossed over the genre lines successfully, and with luck we’ll see more books about Sookie and Bill. (And Bubba!)