- Shopping Bag ( 0 items )
Available on NOOK devices and apps
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
Charlaine Harris writes the #1 New York Times bestselling paranormal fantasy series featuring Sookie Stackhouse (the basis for the HBO series True Blood) and the New York Times bestselling mystery series featuring sleuth Harper Connelly. She lives in a small town in southern Arkansas.
Toni L.P. Kelner is the award-winning author of the "Where Are They Now?" mystery series. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
After her early success, Harris released the first installment in a series of lighthearted mysteries starring spunky, small-town Georgia librarian, true crime enthusiast, and amateur sleuth Aurora Teagarden. When Aurora debuted in Real Murders (1990), Publishers Weekly welcomed "a heroine as capable and potentially complex as P. D. James's Cordelia Gray." The book went on to receive an Agatha Award nomination.
Anxious for another challenge, Harris began a second series in 1996. Darker and edgier than the Teagarden novels, these mysteries featured taciturn, 30-something housecleaner Lily Bard, a woman with a complicated past who has moved to the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, to find peace and solitude. The first novel, Shakespeare's Landlord, was well-received. BookList raved: "Harris has created an intriguing new character in this solidly plotted story." [Much to the disappointment of her fans, Harris concluded the Lilly Bard sequence in 2001 with Shakespeare's Counselor.]
Although Harris achieved moderate success with these two series (which she laughingly describes as "cozies with teeth"), she would hit the jackpot in 2001 with Dead Until Dark, a sly, spoofy paranormal mystery starring a telepathic Louisiana cocktail waitress named Sookie Stackhouse, who falls in love with a vampire named Bill. The novel, a delightful hybrid of mystery, science fiction, and romance, was an instant hit with critics. ("Harris' Sookie has the potential to attract more readers than Hamilton's Anita Blake," raved the dark fantasy magazine Cemetery Dance.) Readers, too, adored the Southern Vampire Series and have rewarded the author with bestseller after bestseller. (In 2008, the Sookie saga came to HBO in a top-rated television adaptation, True Blood, starring Anna Paquin.)
With 2006's Grave Sight, Harris added yet another fascinating character to her stable -- a young woman named Harper Connelly whose youthful encounter with a lightning bolt has left her with the ability to find corpses and determine how they died. In addition to juggling characters and plots for her popular series, Harris has also contributed short stories and novellas to several anthologies of paranormal fantasy fiction.
"I'm really a boring person. My family (my husband and three children) is the most important thing in my life. I go to bed early, I get up early. I love to go to the movies with my husband. My favorite things about finally making some money as a writer are (a) I can buy as many books as I want, and (b) I can hire a maid. The first job I had was working in an offset darkroom at a very small newspaper. I stood on a concrete floor all day and made minimum wage -- which then was $1.60 an hour. I hated it, and I learned a lot, though not necessarily about working in a darkroom. So being a writer is much better."
This is a fun thirteen fantasy collection in which the paranormal go on vacations and have holidays that make the Griswold family and Monsieur Hulot seem tame. "Two Blondes" (by Charlaine Harris) Pam and Sookie go to a not so gentleman's club in Mississippi for the weekend. Jim the demon (see Aisling Gray) heads to Paris for a good time but runs into "The Perils of Effrijim" by Katie MacAlister. The eight immortals get together as "The Boys Go Fishing" by Sarah Smith, but conclude drinking tea is easier. In "One for the Money" by Jeaniene Frost, hitmen Cat and Bones find their vacation interrupted protecting an heiress when the former's mom arrives. You can't go home if you want time out as affirmed by Toni L.P. Kelner in "Pirate Dave's Haunted Amusement Park", "The Demon in the Dunes" by Chris Grabenstein and "Home From America" by Sharan Newman. Readers will enjoy the amusing vacations of the supernatural as whether it is Bermuda (Lilith Saintcrow's "The Heart Is Always Right") or Port Arthur ("Seeing is Believing" by L.A. Banks), fans will want to accompany the paranormal when they go on Death's Excellent Vacation tours.
Harriet Klausner
18 out of 22 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 14, 2011
I bought this book for the short stories by Charlaine Harris and Jeaniene Frost, read those really fast and were really good! The other short stories made me want to check out some of the other authors books.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 8, 2011
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Very Disappointing! Only 2 Stories Worth Reading!
Death's Excellent Vacation was a major let down. It has 13 short stories in it, but only 2 of the stories where worth reading. I recommend just going into the bookstore and reading the stories you want instead of purchasing this title.
I am a fan of Jeanniene Frost; with her "Night Huntress Series" and Katie MacAlister; with her "Aisling Grey, Guardian Series". The two stories I enjoyed the most and recommend reading are the Bones & Cat short story "One for the Money" & Katie MacAlister "The Perils of Effrijim". It would be better if thesis author's put their short stories out on there on instead of in this 13 story book.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Ok I read the reviews before I started this book so I knew that some didnt like it. I am a big Jeaniene Frost and Charlaine Harris fan so I figured I couldnt go wrong. Well it did, in fact if I could get my money back I would have. The ONLY good one in this book was the Cat and Bones story the rest were all very boring. There was a story on fish people I also found humorous but nothing to write home about. My recommendation on this is to walk into the bookstore read the Jeaniene Frost story then go about you business and save yourself the money and time.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 29, 2010
I have to say that if it wasn't for the Jeaniene Frost story this book would have been a total complete let down. Most of the stories I just skimmed through, some I read a few pages and just gave up and moved on to the next story.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 29, 2011
I would never pay this much for a book that I could get for half that price. Expecialy for a paper back that sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.DynamiteKat
Posted October 12, 2010
I'm a huge fan of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books. This book of collections wasn't my favorite, as I had a hard time finishing many of the stories, but it did introduce me to a fantastic series by Jeanniene Frost (Night Huntress Series).
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 12, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted October 20, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 6, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted January 4, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 18, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted February 22, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 13, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted October 8, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted March 5, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 25, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 23, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted August 30, 2010
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
The editors of Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and Many Bloody Returns deliver a new collection-including a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story.New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Katie MacAlister, Jeaniene Frost-plus Lilith Saintcrow, Jeff Abbott, and more-send postcards from the edge of the paranormal world to fans who devoured Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and Many Bloody Returns.
With an all-new Sookie Stackhouse story and twelve other original tales, editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner bring together a stellar collection of tour guides who offer ...