Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, where not everyone appreciates her gift: she can read minds. It's not every man's idea of date baitnot unless they're undead, since vampires can be tough to read. And that's just the kind of guy Sookie's been looking for. Mazbe that's why, when she comes across naked vampire on the way home from work, she doesn't just drive on by. He hasn't got a clue who he is, but Sookie has: Eric looks just as scary and sexy - and dead - as the day she met him.