"A Touch of Dead" by Charlaine Harris is a nice little treat for Harris's fans, consisting of five previously published stories starring Sookie Stackhouse. For the most part, the stories are amusing but fairly inconsequential. With the exception of "One Word Answer", you're not missing much if you skip the stories and just read the novels of the Southern Vampire series. "One Word Answer", however, introduces some facts about Sookie's cousin Hadley, which come into play in the 6th book in the series, as well as providing a first glimpse of Mr. Cataliades and Sophie-Ann LeClerq. If you skip the story, you'll be scratching your head a bit when you read "Definitely Dead". The introduction to "A Touch of Dead" provides information as to where each story fits into the chronology of the Southern Vampire series, which is helpful if you're a purist and want to read everything in order. "A Touch of Dead" is definitely not for anyone who isn't already a fan, but for Sookie-philes, it's a fun, lightweight snack.