title: Dead Until Dark  (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood, Book 1)
author:  Charlaine Harris 
description: <b>Praise for #1 <i>New York Times</i>bestselling authorCharlaine HarrissSookie Stackhouse novels</b><br /><br />Its the kind of book you look forward to reading before you go to bed, thinking youre only going to read one chapter, and then you end up reading seven.Alan Ball, executive producer of <i>True Blood</i><br /><br />Vivid, subtle, and funny in her portrayal of southern life.<i>Entertainment Weekly</i><br /><br />Charlaine Harris has vividly imagined telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse and her small-town Louisiana milieu, where humans, vampires, shapeshifters, and other sentient critters live...Her mash-up of genres is delightful, taking elements from mysteries, horror stories, and romances.<i>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</i><br /><br />The series continues to be inventive and funny with an engaging, smart, and sexy heroine.<i>The Denver Post</i><br /><br />Blending action, romance, and comedy, Harris has created a fully functioning world so very close to our own, except, of course, for the vamps and other supernatural creatures.<i>The Toronto Star</i>
zlib_text: ORDEAL IN OTHERWHERE
  
   **By Andre Norton**
  
   ****
  
  **Contents**
  
   _I_
  
   _II_
  
   _III_
  
   _IV_
  
   _V_
  
   _VI_
  
   _VII_
  
   _VIII_
  
   _IX_
  
   _X_
  
   _XI_
  
   _XII_
  
   _XIII_
  
   _XIV_
  
   _XV_
  
   _XVI_
  
   _XVII_
  
   _XVIII_
  
   ****
  
  **I**
  
  Charis crouched behind the stump, her thin hands pressed tight to the pain in
  her side. Her breath came in tearing gasps which jerked her whole body, and
  her hearing was dimmed by the pounding blood in her ears. It was still too
  early in the morning to distinguish more than light and dark, shadow and open.
  Even the blood-red of the spargo stump was gray-black in this predawn. But it
  was not too dark for her to pick out the markers on the mountain trail.
  
  Though her will and mind were already straining ahead for that climb, her weak
  body remained here on the edge of the settlement clearing, well within
  reach—within reach. Charis fought back the panic which she still had wit
  enough to realize was an enemy. She forced her trembling body to remain in the
  shadow of the stump, to