The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton 11/10/07

I decided to end my reading slump by re-reading the Anita Blake books. First thing: these books are definitely gory. You don’t really wanna read them if you have a vivid imagination and a weak stomach.

The story begins with Anita and Bert going to visit Harold Gaynor. HG wants Anita to raise a very old corpse, which will require a human sacrifice. Anita says no and even Bert the Greedy draws the line at a human sacrifice.

Then Anita gets a call from Dolph. A family has been mutilated and eaten, by what no one knew. Anita thinks it’s a zombie but doesn’t really understand how it’s possible for a couple of reasons: 1) they don’t eat, let alone humans and 2) they usually stay near a grave and this zombie is far away from a cemetary. They try to figure out who could have done it and Anita comes up with several names: Manny Rodriguez (her friend), Peter Burke (who is dead), herself and Dominga Salvador, the local vaudun priestess. She gets Manny to arrange a meeting with DS.

At their meeting, DS assesses Anita’s skills and wonders why Anita wasn’t a vaundun priestess. DS agrees to help them if Anita submits to some “tests.” Anita agrees but at one point she ticks off DS and so, DS sends 2 zombies to try to kill her. They come into her apartment while she is sleeping and she shoots them to bits. Well, her and some police the neighbors were kind enough to call when they heard shots.

Gaynor continues to harass Anita - or rather to send his man Bruno and Tommy to do it. She still says no to raising that corpse since it requires a human sacrifice.

There isn’t much Jean-Claude in this story. He pops up nearly incidentally.

There are more murders and we meet Detective Clive Perry. Also in this book is Charles and Jameson, both fellow animators who work with Anita. Oh, and Irving. I can’t remember if Irving was in the first book. Irving is a werewolf and a reporter. He keeps his werewolf-ness quiet because of discrimination. He gets an interview with JC which makes him happy as a clam to have an exclusive interview with the Master of the City.

In the end, Anita has to kill two men because they are about to kill someone else. When she does that, she has enough power to call all the dead in the cemetary where they are. They kill the men, kill HG and kill DS.

These books are funny sometimes and I meant to find this one funny bit to put here just in case someone else actually reads this but I’ve lost it, more’s the pity. You’ll just have to take my word for it. Or read them yourself. That would work as well.