44. Dead Reckoning

by Charlaine Harris – I have mixed feelings about this, the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel, perhaps because I wanted to love it and because it had been so long since the last one. Dead Reckoning started well, with an explosive first chapter, then s-l-o-w-e-d w-a-a-a-y down. There seemed to be a lot of scenes filled with stilted dialogue, things that could have been compressed or combined to create a tighter story. And I know it’s rather hypocritical of me to complain, as I’ve said in the past the Harris seemed determined to give Sookie no downtime at all, but this? This went beyond downtime almost to boring, at least in the first half. Things picked up in the second half, with the various very loose threads of the first half finally weaving into an actual plot with tension and intrigue. The second half, which took place over a few days, was so much better than the first, which seemed to sprawl across a couple of weeks, but it was hard to tell. And even in the second half, some of Sookie’s dialogue was unnatural and, dare I say it, bad. That is not a problem I’ve noted in the other books in this series, so maybe Harris was just having an off time when she wrote this one… or perhaps her critical readers were unwilling to point it out to her? Whatever the reason, there were passages that just yanked me right out of the story, and those passages were usually words coming out of Sookie’s mouth. Ah, well. It was still a pretty good read and recommended if you’re planning to read any further in the series, so you’ll know who’s still alive and all that. But I wouldn’t kill myself to get a full-price copy now. (FYI: I didn’t. I got my copy as part of the introductory deal when I rejoined the Science Fiction Book Club, paying 20 cents for it, with free shipping/handling.) If you can’t get a copy at the library, or like I did, I’d advise you to wait till it hits the sales bins. (finished 8/4/2011)