For Sookie Stackhouse, the daily activities of the vampire communities, beings, and shapeshifters inside and outside of Bon Temps, Louisiana are of great interest. She has a blood bond with the vampire leader, is friends with the local pack of werewolves, works for a shapeshifter, and her brother is a panther-shifter.
Most people in Bon Temps, on the other hand, consider vampires to be mysterious, alluring creatures—while being completely unaware of the existence of beings and shapeshifters. Until now. The beings and shapeshifters ultimately decide to follow the path paved by the vampires and reveal their existence to the ordinary world.
At first, things seem to be going well—until the mutilated body of a shapeshifter is found in the parking lot of the bar where Sookie works. And because our heroine knew the victim, she feels compelled to discover who—human or something else—could be behind such an act. However, she has not realized that a much greater danger than the killer threatens Bon Temps.
A tribe of non-human beings—older, stronger, and much more secretive than vampires or werewolves—is preparing for war. And Sookie will find herself in the midst of the battle, in the role of an utterly mortal pawn...
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
