Book 32: Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

This book is a vast improvement over Dead as a Doornail. After much thought, I rate it higher than Dead to the World. 

In this installment, Sookie heads to New Orleans to go through things left to her by her murdered vampire cousin Hadley. She's also on hand to help Louisiana Vampire Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq whose recent marriage to the Vampire King of Arkansas is far from a love match.

I enjoyed the ectoplasmic reconstruction spell that Amelia Broadway and other witches use to discover how and why a were had been turned into a vampire at Hadley's apartment. That's the kind of spell that would come in handy. 

Sookie learns some heartbreaking news about her first lover vampire Bill Compton while dating Quinn a weretiger. Sookie and Quinn are attacked twice by weres hired by the Pelt family who (rightfully) blame Sookie for the disappearance of Debbie Pelt.  

At this point, I've read five of the Sookie Stackhouse or Southern Vampire Mysteries. I would like to read the third book because it introduced Russell Edgington, memorably played in the True Blood series by Denis O'Hare. Other than that, I'm not sure if I'll continue.

The original idea of vampires coming out of the coffin because of invention of TruBlood, a synthetic plasma, is brilliant. Not all vampires want to come out and live with humans as equal so that brings a lot of conflict. The werewolves are interesting, but not compelling. Some of the other supernaturals such as werepanthers and weretigers are just too much for me. I guess my suspension of disbelief reached its limit.

Edited to add: Another thing I like about these books is that even in a series about supernaturals, Sookie deals with practical problems as well. She's low on money, until she gets payment for letting amnesiac Eric stay with her in Dead to the World. She's relieved that she and her grandmother had managed to keep up insurance payments when her house is set on fire. Sookie also considers the benefits of marriage to werepanther Calvin Norris. After all, he has a good job with health insurance.