Bill is working on a secret project for the Queen of
Louisiana – that would be the vampire Queen. Something that bypasses Eric and
consumes so much of his time that Sookie feels neglected – it’s also something
that takes him out of Louisiana.
And when out of Louisiana, he goes missing. Which has the Queen agitating at Eric and Eric bringing the problem to Sookie – they need to find Bill, in Jackson, Mississippi, rescue him and find his work. And to make things worse, Bill has taken up with an old flame.
Sookie is heading out with her telepathy to do some
investigating with Aclide, a werewolf, for company. But while he knows Jackson,
he also bring his own issues and problems into the situation.
In terms of plot I liked this book. Bill has been
kidnapped and it’s necessary to travel to hostile territory to track him down
and save him, with a side dose of personal drama I don’t care for but isn’t too
awful. It was well paced – the story moved along without any lags or breaks
with discovery following discovery all pushed with a decent amount of
investigation. We have appropriate red herrings that remain mysteries until
much later in the book. Even the disposing of bodies is well presented with
what you’d think are normal emotions – the panic and the fear and the worry –
rather than in a coolly detached manner that wouldn’t work with them
Negotiating in the different territory allowed for some
interesting world building, some greater expansion and exploration of the
setting that I enjoyed. But I felt it could have used more – I can understand
not questioning Erica about Vampire monarchy – but just seeing Hobb the goblin
and thinking “oh a goblin” and moving on?
If I had any complaints it’s that the investigation, as
it goes ahead, ultimately relies on the extreme luck of Sookie being brought
into the mansion. I’m also more than a little tired of the gratuitous violence
Sookie faces – I expect a level of violence and injury in Urban Fantasy novels,
it’s reasonable that a human playing with vampires is going to be hurt. But
she’s attacked in the bar (unnecessary), staked (unnecessary but conveniently
advances the plot), raped (REALLY unnecessary), then beaten up when she returns
home (also, unnecessary). It feels like, the last scene in particular, is just
added in for extra injuries.
