Lily Bard heads home for the holidays. Lily heads to her hometown of Bartley for her estranged sister?s Christmas Eve wedding. But there is something in the air besides holiday cheer?there?s murder. And Lily must work fast to clean up the messy case before her sister promises to love, honor, and obey a killer.

For the first time together in one volume, the complete short story collection starring Sookie Stackhouse—with a new introduction from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the series, Charlaine Harris. For the first time together in one volume, here is the complete short story collection starring Louisiana’s favorite telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse—from #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. New fans can fill in the gaps in their Sookie lore while old friends can revisit some of their favorite moments and characters. From investigating the murder of a local fairy to learning that her cousin was a vampire, from remodeling her best friend’s house to attending a wedding with her shapeshifting boss, Sam, Sookie navigates the perils and pitfalls of the paranormal world. Belly up to the bar at Bon Temps’s favorite watering hole and hear stories that will make you wish Sookie never left, including... “Fairy Dust” “One Word Answer” “Dracula Night” “Lucky” “Gift Wrap” “Two Blondes” “If I Had a Hammer” “Small-Town Wedding” “Playing Possum” “In the Blue Hereafter” This definitive collection is the perfect binge read for people who like their stories with bite! **Review Praise for Charlaine Harris and her Sookie Stackhouse novels   “It’s the kind of book you look forward to reading before you go to bed, thinking you’re only going to read one chapter, and then you end up reading seven.”—Alan Ball, executive producer of True Blood “Vivid, subtle, and funny in her portrayal of southern life.”—Entertainment Weekly “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.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “The series continues to be inventive and funny with an engaging, smart, and sexy heroine.”—The Denver Post “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.”—The Toronto Star About the Author Charlaine Harris is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse and Midnight, Texas, fantasy/mystery series and the Aurora Teagarden, Harper Connelly, and Lily Bard mystery series. Her books have inspired HBO’s True Blood, NBC’s Midnight, Texas, and the Aurora Teagarden movies for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. She has lived in the South her entire life.

#1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Charlaine Harris returns to her alternate history of the United States where magic is an acknowledged but despised power in this fourth installment of the Gunnie Rose series.Felicia, Lizbeth Rose's half-sister and a student at the Grigori Rasputin school in San Diego—capital of the Holy Russian Empire—is caught between her own secrets and powerful family struggles. As a granddaughter of Rasputin, she provides an essential service to the hemophiliac Tsar Alexei, providing him the blood transfusions that keep him alive. Felicia is treated like a nonentity at the bedside of the tsar, and at the school she's seen as a charity case with no magical ability. But when Felicia is snatched outside the school, the facts of her heritage begin to surface. Felicia turns out to be far more than the Russian-Mexican Lizbeth rescued. As Felicia's history unravels and her true abilities become known, she...

Take a trip to the small town where only outsiders fit in with the first novel in Charlaine Harris’ paranormal mystery series—as seen in NBC’s primetime television series Midnight, Texas.  **Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and the Davy highway. It’s a pretty standard dried-up western town. There’s a pawnshop with three residents. One is seen only at night. There’s a diner, but people stopping there tend not to linger. There’s a newcomer, Manfred Bernardo, who just wants to work hard and blend in. But Manfred has secrets of his own... **From Booklist Harris comes off the ending of her wildly popular Sookie Stackouse series with a new mystery-romance-paranormal mash-up, slated as the first in a planned trilogy. The inhabitants of Midnight, Texas, have all chosen the derelict little town for its size and its ­quietness—it’s a great place to hide. But what are they hiding from? Bobo Winthrop, proprietor of the local pawn shop, seems to know a little bit about everyone in town, and they all have secrets. The new tenant in the basement of the pawn shop only comes out after dark, while New Age instructor Fiji Cavanaugh openly claims to be a witch and can talk to her cat, Mr. Snuggly. When Bobo’s girlfriend, Aubrey, disappears, people start to ask too many questions, and everyone begins to fear that their pasts will be exposed, along with Aubrey’s. Although it’s much lighter on the paranormal elements than Harris’ usual fare, this should still make the lists of readers who miss Sookie and company. HIGH DEMAND BACKSTORY: Between her books and the HBO spin-off True Blood, Harris has a large fan base. Now that both the print and the television series have ended, they’re looking for something new to read. --Rebecca Vnuk Review Praise for Charlaine Harris and Her Novels of Midnight, Texas “[Harris is] the Mark Twain of things that live under your bed.”—Houston Press “[An] out-of-the-ordinary mystery.”—Publishers Weekly “More addictive and more satisfying than a class A drug.”—SFBook “A little magic, a little mystery, and a lot of imagination make for a story that is both fun and edgy.”—Kirkus Reviews “As intimate and deep as the Stackhouse novels.”—Library Journal “Move over Bon Temps, Midnight, Texas, has arrived.”—Fresh Fiction

**Includes a brand-new story featuring Sookie Stackhouse and Manfred Bernardo ALL-NEW TALES OF UNUSUAL ATHLETICS BY JAN BURKE * DANA CAMERON * ADAM-TROY CASTRO * BRENDAN DuBOIS * CHARLAINE HARRIS * TONI L. P. KELNER * CAITLIN KITTREDGE * WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER * ELLEN KUSHNER * MERCEDES LACKEY * JOE R. LANSDALE * LAURA LIPPMAN * SEANAN McGUIRE * BRANDON SANDERSON * SCOTT SIGLER Welcome to the wide world of paranormal pastimes, where striking out might strike you dead. Editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner are your announcers for this all-new story collection of the most peculiar plays ever made… Sports fans live and die by their teams’ successes and failures—though not literally. But these fourteen authors have written spirited—in more ways than one—new tales of killer competitions that would make even the most die-hard players ask to be benched. In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s “The Blue Hereafter,” Manfred Bernardo learns about softball from a certain blond barmaid in Louisiana. Life-and-death stakes make the competition get serious in New York Times bestseller William Kent Krueger’s “Hide and Seek.” New York Times bestselling author Mercedes Lackey’s “False Knight on the Road” features a high-stakes drag race on a foggy mountain road between a clever young bootlegger and a mysterious stranger. In New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s “Ice,” a young girl learns the true story behind a bit of neighborhood folklore. New York Times bestseller Seanan McGuire presents “Jammed,” in which a chimera loose during the Roller Derby makes it anyone’s guess as to who will still be skating by the time the buzzer sounds. In #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson’s “Dreamer,” a game of cops and robbers is a new challenge when the players are able to switch bodies at will. And New York Times bestselling author Scott Sigler follows ghost stomper Hunter Hunterson as he investigates a haunted, never-ending baseball game in “The Case of the Haunted Safeway.” These and eight more supernatural sporting stories are guaranteed to have you rooting for the home team…or else… Introduction BY CHARLAINE HARRIS AND TONI L. P. KELNER IN THE BLUE HEREAFTER BY CHARLAINE HARRIS HIDE AND SEEK BY WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER STEPPING INTO THE DEAD ZONE BY JAN BURKE DEAD ON THE BONES BY JOE R. LANSDALE THE DEVIL WENT DOWN TO BOSTON BY CAITLIN KITTREDGE ON THE PLAYING FIELDS OF BLOOD BY BRENDAN DUBOIS THE GOD’S GAMES BY DANA CAMERON THE CASE OF THE HAUNTED SAFEWAY BY SCOTT SIGLER PRISE DE FER BY ELLEN KUSHNER DREAMER BY BRANDON SANDERSON FALSE KNIGHT ON THE ROAD BY MERCEDES LACKEY JAMMED BY SEANAN MCGUIRE HIDE AND SHRIEK BY ADAM-TROY CASTRO ICE BY LAURA LIPPMAN BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLEPIN BY TONI L. P. KELNER

DANCERS IN THE DARK by Charlaine HarrisDancer Layla Rue Le May's childhood prepared her to handle just about anything, including her aloof partner, Sean McClendon, a three-hundred-year-old vampire. But when she acquires a stalker, Layla Rue is surprised to find that Sean is the only one she can trust.HER BEST ENEMY by Maggie ShayneKiley Brigham refuses to believe there's a ghost in her house, but when an unseen hand leaves a bloody message on her mirror, she's forced to turn to local psychic Jack McCain. As the two work to uncover a long-buried secret, Kiley finds that she's haunted not by spirits, but by thoughts of Jack....SOMEONE ELSE'S SHADOW by Barbara HamblyMaddie Laveau worries about her young roommate, Tessa, when she stays late to practice ballet in the old Glendower Building...and when Tessa goes missing, Maddie enlists mysterious tenant Phil Anderson to help. But is Phil the white knight she needs, or the predator she fears?

Product DescriptionNew in the #1 New York Times bestselling Sookie Stackhouse series-the basis for HBO(r)'s True Blood! With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover Eric Northman and his "child" Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot-which is much more complicated than she knows... About the AuthorCharlaine Harris writes both fantasies and mysteries. She lives in southern Arkansas with her family.

Lily Bard is a loner. Fiercely protective of her independence, she concentrates on her karate skills and her work as the proprietor of a cleaning and errand-running service, and pays little attention to the town around her. When her landlord is murdered, though, she looks like the prime suspect. Uncovering the real killer may be the only way to prove her innocence, and Lily realizes that she must focus on the other residents of tiny Shakespeare. Her job gives her easy access to people's private lives, and she begins to snoop, finding plenty of skeleton-filled closets, and exposing herself to the unwanted attentions of a murderer.