Sookie Stackhouse is an insignificant waitress in an insignificant town in Louisiana. She is quiet, introverted, and doesn't go out much. And that's not because she's not beautiful. She is. But because, well, Sookie has this "quirk," let's say. She can read people's minds. And that doesn't make her a girl for dating. Until Bill shows up. He's tall, dark, charming... and Sookie can't hear a word of what he's thinking. He's exactly the type she's been waiting for all her life... But Bill has his own quirk: he's a vampire with a bad reputation, hanging out with a rather scary bunch of vampires, suspected of - how strange! - murder. And when one of Sookie's colleagues is killed, she fears she might be next... [Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]