Right off the bat, Sookie Stackhouse has a bad feeling about things. First Bill, her vampire boyfriend, is being mysterious, then he disappears. As she soon learns, he was kidnapped, and furthermore, was about to abandon her for an old lover. His betrayal notwithstanding, the local vampire sherriff, Eric, makes her go after Bill, to rescue him before he can be tortured into revealing something that would be harmful to everyone else.

He send her to Alcide, a Mississippi werewolf who owes him a favor, to provide her with protection and whatever else she needs. For further backup, she has Bubba, a vampire that all the Southern vampire royals pass between themselves to keep him out of trouble. If Eric seriously wanted Sookie and company to avoid trouble, he was doomed to disappointment.

Sookie attracts it in a variety of ways, from ticking off Alcide's ex to finding a body in her closet.

The Southern Vampire series is full of good natured humor and very unpretentious supernaturals. Sookie's lovelife is almost as complex as Anita Blake's, but she manages to keep to a higher moral ground while considering her options. If for no other reason than to find out the secret of Bubba, read this book.