Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mystery Series is another series based on the premise that vampires are real and are now legal citizens of the United States. In this case, they came out of the closet after a synthetic blood product was created in Japan, which means they no longer have to feed off humans. Of course they still do. There are lots of "fang bangers", willing groupies that like to get bit.
In an interesting twist, it turns out that vampire blood becomes the next addictive drug of choice. Ingest vampire blood and temporarily you heal quicker, are stronger, your senses more acute, and you are more attractive. There is quite a blackmarket in vampire blood. The hunters have become the hunted.
Like the Anita Blake series, if vampires are real, then all the other creatures are too and we are treated to a new monster or creature in each book, although sometimes the monsters are just plain old humans.
Charlaine Harris' heroine is Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in a small Louisiana town. Sookie has what she refers to as her disability, she is telepathic, able to read minds. It made it hard for her to concentrate in school, so she is basically self-educated. Dating is almost impossible, since knowing every little thought flitting through a guy's head is a real romantic turn off. When she meets her first vampire, she finds the fact that she can't read his mind totally refreshing and she soon becomes involved with Vampire Bill. Bill is trying to mainstream, live among humans, and has returned to the old homestead that he was forced to leave after the Civil War.
Through Bill, Sookie becomes more and more involved in the world of the supes, vampires, weres, shapeshifters, witches, etc.. Bill's boss, Eric, a.k.a. the Sheriff of Sector Five, makes use of Sookie's ability to solve problems, like finding out who is embezzling from his night club and finding missing vampires.
Charlaine Harris is well known for her Aurora Teagarden mysteries about a librarian whose life never goes quite as she expected and Lily Bard "Shakespeare" mysteries set in the town of Shakespeare, Arkansas. She began her Southern Vampire series in 2001 with DEAD UNTIL DARK. There are currently four books, DEAD UNTIL DARK, LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS, CLUB DEAD, DEAD TO THE WORLD. The fifth book, DEAD AS A DOORNAIL, is due out in May 2005. Like Laurell K. Hamilton's books, the series has at its core a mystery. Also like Laurell K. Hamilton's books, the personal relationships, the
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