A Touch of Dead (Anth of Sookie stories) by Charlaine Harris

A Touch of Dead is an anthology of previously published Sookie short stories.

Fairy Dust is a story I'd not read before. It was originally published as part of the Powers of Detection anthology and chronologically comes just after Dead to the World. An okay story, I'll give it a 7 of 10.

Dracula Night is from Many Bloody Returns. I have that anthology, but I don't remember reading this particular story. It falls chronologically between Dead to the World and Dead as a Doornail. This was a pretty good story, a 9 of 10.

One Word Answer is from the Bite anthology and was the first story I actually remembered reading. This story falls between Dead as a Doornail and Definitely Dead. One Word Answer was also a good story, and one that is kind of important to the series. I'll give it a 9 of 10 as well.

Lucky is another I had not read before, it first appeared in the Unusual Suspects anthology. I'm not sure that anthology even hit my radar, to be honest. This story falls chronologically between the events of All Together Dead and From Dead to Worse. I enjoyed Lucky a bit more than the others, I'll give it a 10 of 10.

And last we have Gift Wrap, from the Wolfsbane and Mistletoe anthology. I both liked and disliked this story... in part because I know what happened after the book, and it makes it hard to remember the good stuff, knowing what happens later. Any story that can provoke both happy and sad emotions is probably well done. I'll give it a 9 of 10.

All in all, the stories in this book are good stories, but I'm not sure they are worth the price tag of a hardback book. My series rating remains a 10 of 10 for the Sookie series, but A Touch of Dead in its entirety get an 8 of 10 from me.


Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series
1. Dead Until Dark
2. Living Dead in Dallas
3. Club Dead
4. Dead to the World
5. Dead as a Doornail
6. Definitely Dead
7. All Together Dead
8. From Dead to Worse
9. Dead and Gone
10. Dead in the Family