The Barnes & Noble Review
Out of print for more than 20 years, the debut novel from prolific mystery author Charlaine Harris (the Aurora Teagarden saga, the Lily Bard stories, et al.) is finally available once again. But unlike her lighthearted and humor-filled Sookie Stackhouse series, Sweet and Deadly is an eerie and atmospheric gem about a young woman named Catherine Linton, who returns to her home in Lowfield, Mississippi, following her parents' tragic death and becomes entangled in the small town's dirty little secrets.
While out target shooting on her family's land, the still-grieving Catherine stumbles across the corpse of a brutally beaten woman hidden away in an old shack. The victim, it turns out, was a decidedly unlikable nurse who worked with Catherine's physician father. Catherine investigates further and soon uncovers the scandalous truth: The nurse was blackmailing someone in the town -- someone prominent and someone desperate enough to kill in order to keep a secret…
Longtime Harris fans will be more than pleasantly surprised by this dark and disturbing murder mystery set in a small town on the Mississippi Delta. Vividly re-creating the unique and sometimes negative aspects of southern culture (replete with underpinnings of racism, sexism, self-righteousness, etc.), Sweet and Deadly is archetypical southern gothic -- especially the novel's shocking conclusion. Highly recommended. Paul Goat Allen
It’s been a year since Charlaine Harris concluded her phenomenally popular Southern Vampire (aka, Sookie Stackhouse) saga. It was a wild ride, encompassing 13 best-selling novels over a 12-year period, an HBO series, and millions of Bon Temps, Louisiana, fanatics. So what’s next for Harris? Something even better. In May, she will release the first book […]
Charlaine Harris is an icon. She’s found success writing mysteries (the Aurora Teagarden series), gothic horror (Sweet and Deadly), and paranormal fantasy (the Sookie Stackhouse saga). But it’s Midnight Crossroad, out today, that may very well be her best—and most important—work to date. Set in the one-stoplight town of Midnight, Texas, the novel begins with […]