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Deadlocked (Sookie Stackhouse #12) by Charlaine Harris.

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

Felipe de Castro, the vampire king of Louisiana, is visiting Shreveport.  A party is being held in his honor at the home of Eric Northman, and Sookie's presence is requested.  She walks in on Eric feeding from a young woman, and is (understandably) upset.  Though Eric orders the girl to leave, his response is noticeably sluggish.  When she's found dead soon afterward, Sookie realizes that Eric has been set up.

What is difficult to determine is the reason for the elaborate plan, and just who concocted it.

On top of this, Sookie has to deal with the rest of her life, as complicated as ever.  She's now an investor in Merlotte's Bar & Grill, having lent Sam some money for structural repairs, and therefore has more responsibility. Sam's girlfriend Jannalynn is deeply jealous of Sookie's friendship with him, and is making their working relationship very difficult.

Tara is expecting twins very soon, and though her boutique is doing well, she and her husband JB are worried about finances. Sookie's fae housemates Dermot and Claude are homesick, since the portal to their homeland was closed and they're unable to go back and forth as they once did.  And she also has to keep the magical cluviel dor safe while she decides what to do with it.

Sookie, who has always been remarkably forbearing about her complicated life, is starting to feel stressed.  She's annoyed that Eric is distant and uncommunicative, and feels caught between the various factions of supernaturals, all of whom seem to think she should be on their "side".

Make sure you start this book when you have nothing else planned:  you won't want to put it down until you reach the end.

Charlaine Harris

 That this is the penultimate installment in the series has been known for some time.  On May 14th, it was announced on Charlaine Harris' facebook page that the final novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead Ever After, will be released on 3 May 2013.  This is not the first time that Harris has ended a series when she thought the story had run its course; she did the same with the Aurora Teagarden books, the Shakespeare series (protagonist Lily Bard did make a visit to Bon Temps early in the series)  and the Harper Connelly series.  





FTC full disclosure:  Many thanks to my step-daughter for lending me the book so I wouldn't have to wait for months to get a copy from the library!

Angels Among Us?

Angel Condemned by Mary Stanton.

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

Brianna Winston-Beaufort has two law practices. The "temporal" office, the one that pays the bills, is located in an office building on Savannah's Bay Street. The celestial office is located in a house on Angelus Street, and can only be found by Bree and the Company who work there with her, and perhaps the occasional client.

The staff and clients of the Angelus office are not living humans. The staff are what is commonly known as angels, while the clients are the souls of the dead who believe they've been wrongly condemned to Hell.

In this, the fifth installment in the series, Bree's aunt asks her to represent her fiancé Prosper White. Prosper is being sued by an antiques dealer for allegedly stealing a valuable magazine cover for a museum display. Bree hopes to settle out of court, but before she has a chance to do much, Prosper is murdered and Cissy is the prime suspect, although there is no shortage of people who disliked Prosper.

Meanwhile, Bree is trying to ignore the summons of a celestial client, who also claims to have been wronged by Prosper as well as Allard Chambers, the antique dealer.

Mary Stanton has created a believable protagonist in Bree, who understands the task she has inherited, but sometimes wants to decline, and is always frustrated by bureaucracy, whether temporal or celestial. And although all the elements of a horror story are here: evil attorneys opposing Bree, mirrors that reflect demons and paintings that portray reality, this is not a frightening tale.

Rather, the philosophy underlying this unputdownable book, that there is someone working to correct divine mistakes, is a comfort.

*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes.

All Hallow's Eve giveaway!

CFC is giving away two thrillers as a Hallowe'en treat. Andrew E. Kaufman and L.J. Sellers have each offered an e-book to a commenter (one to each of two people) on today's post.

Drew's treat is While the Savage Sleeps

and L.J.'s is Secrets to Die For.

Comments must be posted by midnight on October 31st. The drawing for each book will be made by its author.