The Sookie Stackhouse Companion

at the same time in Merlotte’s. Across the world shifters are revealing themselves, including Sam’s mother, who is shot by her second husband when she shifts in front of him. Sam rushes to her side, leaving Sookie to manage the bar in his absence. While he is gone, Crystal is found crucified in the parking lot. Like many people, Sam wonders whether she was killed because she was a shifter or because of her actions. He returns as quickly as possible to take over from Sookie and finds out that she has unwittingly married Eric. He reacts badly. His overall concern for her grows as her new involvement with the fae leads to her kidnapping and torture.
    The wedding of Sam’s brother, Craig, has been postponed as Craig’s fiancée’s family struggles with the shifter aspect of their future son-in-law’s family, and Sam continues to hope for a new date to be set. Having asked Sookie if she would accompany him months before, he confirms that she will attend with him even after he begins dating Jannalynn Hopper. Sam fears that Were Jannalynn is too intense for his family. When the wedding finally takes place, the families are faced with protests but wind up surrounded by shifters who have come from all around to offer support and protection. Jannalynn shows up unannounced, hurt and angry that Sam didn’t think she was appropriate to bring to a family function, and the two agree to discuss their relationship when they both get home. They do and decide to continue dating.
    Sam is already worried about the future of his bar when a firebomb is thrown through the front window. Damages and injuries are minimal, and he is quickly able to reopen, but business continues to slide as customers are drawn to Vic’s Redneck Roadhouse, a new bar that Victor Madden has opened nearby. Sam’s problems increase when four thugs high on vampire blood enter Merlotte’s, intent on causing trouble and taking Sookie. Sam, Jannalynn, an off-duty Andy Bellefleur, and the suspiciously well-placed and well-timed private detectives Jack and Lily Leeds subdue the men. The motive behind both attacks is eventually revealed when a wild-eyed Sandra Pelt shows up at Merlotte’s, publicly admitting that she has been attempting to kill Sookie. With Sam’s help, Terry Bellefleur manages to disable Sandra, and she is taken first to the hospital and then to jail, but she manages to escape. Struggling with the bar’s mounting costs and lack of business, Sam reluctantly accepts a sizable loan from Sookie to tide the bar over. He and Jannalynn are spending the afternoon together at his trailer when they are accosted by Sandra and held at gunpoint. She forces Sam to call Sookie to lure her to his trailer, but sensing something is wrong, Sookie has Sam drive out to her house instead. When the trio arrives, Jannalynn takes advantage of a distraction and viciously attacks Sandra while Sam and Sookie stay on the fringes, trying to help. Sam’s nose is broken when he grabs Sandra’s hair and she punches him, but Jannalynn ultimately gets the upper hand and breaks Sandra’s neck, then crushes her skull to finish the job. Worried about the ramifications of reporting the death, Sam and Sookie decide to dispose of the body instead and, followed by a wounded Jannalynn, carry Sandra into the woods to the fairy portal and shove her through. After returning to the house, Jannalynn sets Sam’s broken nose before the pair leave for his trailer, disposing of Sandra’s rifle along the way.
    When Tara and JB du Rone decide to renovate their bungalow to make a room for their new twins, Sam agrees to help and then gets some tips from Terry Bellefleur. As he is tearing down a wall, Sam finds the hammer used to murder Isaiah Wechsler in the 1930s. The handling of the hammer disturbs the murderer’s spirit, and both the adults and the babies react to the negative energy in the house. JB and Tara’s nanny, Quiana Wong, is a psychic who is able to channel the spirit and realizes that his bones must be buried nearby. Sam shifts to a bloodhound to scent the area and is able to locate the remains in the yard. Sookie and Quiana work together to identify the killer as the youngest son of the Summerlins, the family that lived in the house at the time. He was secretly buried in the yard by his parents after committing suicide. After the bones are uncovered and reinterred in Sookie’s family plot, the spirit finally rests, and Sam and JB make plans to continue the renovations.