Sookie Stackhouse works as a cocktail waitress in Merlotte's, a little bar in Bon Temps, a small town deep in Louisiana. She's funny and pretty and well-mannered, but she doesn't have that many close friends - mind you, that's not so surprising when you consider how few people can appreciate her abilities as a mind-reader. It's not a quality that has the guys beating down her door - well, unless they're vampires or werewolves or the like . . . but they're not just supernatural freaks, some of them are friends, even family . . .

And then along comes Bill: he's tall, he's dark and he's handsome - and Sookie can't 'hear' a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting all her life for. But Bill has a disability of his own: he's fussy about his food, he doesn't like suntans and he's never around during the day . . . Yep, Bill's a vampire. Worse than that, he hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, with a reputation for trouble - of the murderous kind.

True Blood contains the full text of the first three Sookie Stackhouse novels: Dead Until Dark, Living Dead In Dallas and Club Dead in one superb value omnibus edition.

Gollancz, paperback, 720 pages, published November 2009

Author: Charlaine Harris