A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

Read: June 7-12, 2012

read in 6 days

pages: 192

This was a very quick quirky read. There are five short stories in this little book that have all been previously been published elsewhere. This was meant to put them all in one easy to access book. I'm glad I was able to find this in the library despite having bought one book with one story a while back at the used book store.

Anyways there are five stories as I said a couple work really well and actually add to the story arc of the novels while the others are just filler and I guess somewhat enjoyable.

"Fairy Dust" I think did well as it explained the fairy triplets Claude, Claudette and Claudine. This story has Sookie enlisted to help the duo Claude and Claudine find out what happened to their sister Claudette who we never meet. She was murdered and it is Sookie's job to help them solve the mystery. The story adds little else than introduce the characters and explain that there are triplets rather than twins.

"Dracula Night" was really filler and an add one at that. I didn't think the characteristics of Eric fit him in this story. He seemed a bit off. I love the character and was really disappointed with the portrayal in this story. To show Eric going ga ga over waiting to see if his "idol" Dracula actually shows up was just cheesy.

"Lucky" was also just odd. It was nothing more than a who-dun-it much like "Fairy Dust". Sookie's insurance agent enlists her to find out who is trying to sabotage his agency. Sounds very mundane given all of the other messes Sookie manages to get into in the novels.

"One Word Answer" was a good addition to the novels story arc because this opened up the readers understanding, and Sookie's understanding for that matter, about her cousin Hadley's death. This story actually works to fill in some holes in the plot line.

"Gift Wrap" I'm going to say nothing more than the whole premise of her great grandfather sending a fairy to be her "christmas" present was just odd and incredibly creepy. Ew

Overall some of the stories were better than others but it was understandable that having read her intro that she found it hard to write the stories as they were intended to be short stories in other collections, but it was hard to use the characters and not destroy or put off the story arc. She had to try to keep from jumbling things and that could be why the stories don't entertain as much as the novels.

That all said I'd recommend them for anyone reading the series who is looking to read more on the characters simply because you enjoy the characters and you even get a little filler that explains some holes! Bonus!