Dead Until Dark

Sookie Stackhouse is a telepathic waitress in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, where vampires have recently come out of hiding after the invention of synthetic blood. When Bill Compton, a vampire, walks into the bar where she works, Sookie is drawn to him partly because his mind is silent to her telepathy — a rare relief. Their romance develops against a backdrop of small-town suspicion and a string of murders targeting women who have been intimate with vampires, pulling Sookie into a mystery that puts her own life at risk.