Club Dead takes place at the beginning of December and begins with Bill asking Sookie for a time apart while he works on a secret project for the vampire queen of Louisiana. He also tells her that he will be traveling to Seattle. Days later, a werewolf attacks Sookie at Merlotte’s, but Bubba, who has been sent by Eric to protect Sookie, stops and kills the attacker. Later that night, Eric, Pam and Chow inform Sookie that Bill has been in Mississippi all this time because Lorena, a female vampire whom Bill lived with years ago, had summoned him. He tells Sookie that Bill had called saying he was coming back to Bon Temps earlier without telling Sookie so he could arrange her future care before he saw her again. Eric also tells Sookie that the queen does not know about Bill’s disappearance and that Eric needs to produce Bill’s project by its due date without compromising his life and his job. Eric thinks Bill is still alive in Mississippi and believes that Lorena has betrayed and captured Bill. Eric cannot interrogate humans and vampires that are under the protection of the vampire king of Mississippi, Russell Edgington, without starting a war. He asks Sookie if she is willing to go to Jackson and “pick the brains” among the king’s human employees and Sookie agrees to go.

Alcide Herveaux, a werewolf (Were) from Shreveport, is sent by Eric the following day to take Sookie to Jackson and to help her circulate among the supernatural community. In Jackson, Sookie not only has to deal with the vampires of Mississippi, but she is implicated with a bounty hunting werewolves pack. In Sookie’s first visit to a vampire bar called Josephine’s (also known as Club Dead within the shapeshifting community) she learns that Bill has been captured and that Russell Edgington might be involved in this kidnapping. She personally meets Russell when a bar patron and bounty hunter werewolf Jerry Falcon mangles her when Sookie does not agree to join him. In this same night, Sookie also meets Debbie Pelt, Alcide’s ex-girlfriend and a shapeshifter who is mean spirited and unhappy to see Alcide with another woman. In the next day, Sookie and Alcide find the dead body of Jerry Falcon stuffed in the closet. It is later discovered that Bubba had caught Jerry entering Alcide’s home and killed him instantly.

During the following night, Sookie, back at Club Dead, gets badly injured when Steve Newlin and another fanatic of The Fellowship of the Sun, a vampire-hating organization, are present in the club ready to stake Betty Joe, Edgington’s second in command. Sookie gets staked instead and she is quickly rushed to Edgington’s mansion. Eric, in disguise, is there to help her as Alcide had turn into a wolf and run to pursue Steve Newlin who was able to escape. After her wounds have been tended by a vampire, Eric gives Sookie his blood. Sookie gets strong and heals completely. Bubba, who has been following Sookie from Bon Temps, informs them that Bill has been tortured in a nearby house within Edgington’s compound.

In daylight, Sookie is fortunate to find that most vampires are sleeping and that the guards, who are wereanimals, are tired and resting from the previous full moon night. Sookie is then able to rescue Bill and to kill Lorena when she attacks Sookie. Back in Alcide’s parking garage, with Bill in her car trunk, Sookie is pushed into the trunk by Debbie Pelt. At dusk, Bill, who has been deprived of blood and sleep for several weeks, wakes up and unconsciously feeds on Sookie, mangling her neck and then rapes her. After such a long day, Sookie asks Eric to drive her home, but her night is not over as they are not only attacked at the gas station they had stopped, but she severely gets hurt when she finds werewolves waiting for her in her own home. Eric, who has been shot, and Bill kill them all. The novel ends with Sookie rescinding her invitation to both Eric and Bill.