Living Dead in Dallas is the 2nd book from The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. The second season of HBO’s True Blood is loosely based in this book. Because the books focus on Sookie and her adventures, we don’t actually know what happened in Bon Temps while she was doing a job with Bill for the Dallas vampires. But before she left for Dallas, she encountered the maenad Callisto.
Like what i mentioned in my previous post about this series, Lafayette died in the beginning of this book. That and the maenad’s presence was merely a side story which Sookie had to take care of when she got back from Dallas. The story focused on the Dallas vampires as one of their “brothers” went missing and they needed Sookie’s special ability to find out what happened to him. They had a hunch that The Fellowship of the Sun was behind it but they needed to be sure. Later we find out that the vampire Farell was captured with the help of Godric/Godfrey, who wanted to face his true death by burning under the sun.
Unlike the show, Jason Stackhouse was nowhere near the Fellowship, Steve Newlin is an old man, and Godric/Godfrey is not Eric Northman’s maker. I happen to like Godric from the show, his existence and relationship with Eric made them seem more human. But Godfrey in the books was just a pedophile who raped and killed children, sucking them dry. Although it seems like he repented when he realized his sins and decided to take his life by facing the sun.
Another difference between the show and the book is that Tara and Eggs have already been going out. Sookie knew Tara from high school and they were not best friends since they were kids. Eggs and the maenad didn’t die too, although a whole bunch of townsfolk DID die when the maenad took their lives as a “proper tribute” to her. Also, Sam was running/spending time in the woods with the maenad, not another shapeshifter. If you’ve seen the show, they made it look like Sam encountered the maenad before and he hates her guts and he killed her in the end.