Dead to the World characters

Appears from the start

A telepathic waitress at Merlotte's bar in Bon Temps, Louisiana, single again after ending her relationship with the vampire Bill Compton and trying hard to have an ordinary winter. She owns her grandmother's house, works doubles, and has learned to charge the supernatural community for her services. She still hears every mind around her, which makes solitude a relief rather than a punishment.

Appears from the start

The thousand-year-old Norse vampire who owns Fangtasia and rules the vampires of northern Louisiana. Sookie finds him on a dark road on New Year's Eve, barefoot and half dressed, with no memory of who or what he is beyond the fact that he is a vampire. Stripped of a millennium of calculation, he is gentle, affectionate and frightened, and nothing like the man who has spent two years maneuvering her into his debt.

Appears from the start

Sookie's former lover, the Bon Temps vampire who lives across the cemetery from her. He leaves the country at the start of the book on research of his own, and their dealings are polite, painful and brief.

Appears from the start

Sookie's brother, now a road crew supervisor in Bon Temps and involved with a young woman from the isolated crossroads community of Hotshot. He disappears from his own house in the first days of the year, leaving blood on the dock behind it and no other trace.

Appears from the start

Sookie's boss at Merlotte's and a shapeshifter. He keeps the bar running, keeps her secrets, and does what he can to help find Jason, while making no secret of wishing she would stay out of vampire business.

First appears in chapter 2

Eric's second at Fangtasia and the vampire who has to run northern Louisiana while its sheriff is missing. Practical and cold-blooded about the crisis, she is the one who negotiates with Sookie to hide Eric, and who names the price.

First appears in chapter 2

The tattooed vampire who tends bar at Fangtasia. With Eric gone he shares the running of the territory with Pam, and he is less inclined than she is to spend vampire money on a human's protection.

First appears in chapter 4

A young woman from Hotshot, a closed rural community outside Bon Temps whose families keep to themselves and marry among themselves. She has been seeing Jason Stackhouse, and she is one of the last people to have been with him before he disappeared.

First appears in chapter 4

A waitress at Merlotte's, a divorced mother with a young son, who practices Wicca with a small local circle. She is uneasy about being asked to help with vampire business, but she knows which witches are ordinary practitioners and which are something else.

First appears in chapter 6

The head of the Hotshot community, a road crew foreman and a werepanther. Courteous, watchful and openly interested in Sookie, he offers his people's help in the search for Jason and expects the favor to be remembered.

First appears in chapter 5

The leader of a coven that has come to Shreveport demanding a share of the vampires' businesses. Her witches are not ordinary Wiccans: they are also werewolves, and they drink vampire blood, which makes their magic far stronger than it should be. She is the reason the sheriff of the area is wandering the roads with no memory.

First appears in chapter 5

Hallow's brother and second in the coven, a witch and werewolf who handles the violence her plans require.

First appears in chapter 7

The Shreveport werewolf who escorted Sookie to Jackson the year before, now running his family's surveying business and free of his engagement. His pack is drawn into the fight against the coven, and he and Sookie remain on cautious, friendly terms.

First appears in chapter 7

The leader of the Shreveport werewolf pack, a retired air force officer who runs pack business like a command. He negotiates the alliance with the vampires against the coven and expects discipline from everyone involved.

First appears in chapter 11

A tall, black-haired woman of striking beauty who appears at Sookie's side when the fighting starts, announces that she is looking after her, and will not explain much beyond that. She is not human, she is not a shapeshifter or a vampire, and she is unwilling to be anywhere near iron or lemons.

First appears in chapter 12

The Jackson shapeshifter who was cast out by Alcide Herveaux for trying to get Sookie killed in Mississippi. Publicly disgraced and blaming Sookie for it, she has not let the matter drop.