Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton 12/24/07

This one also is not named for a business but the fact that there is a “blue moon” or two full moons in one month.

The book begins with Anita getting a phone call from Daniel Zeeman, Richard’s brother. Richard is in jail for rape. Anita makes some phone calls and arranges to go to where Richard is, in Tennessee working on his masters. JC comes over and Anita figures out that he is insecure and jealous where Richard is concerned. The Master of the City, Colin, there does not want Anita or anyone else to come there. He views it as a threat. Anita decides to go anyway. JC can’t go but he sends Damian and Asher with Anita. Also going are Jason, Cherry, Jamil, Zane, and Nathaniel. Anita notices that Nathaniel is only 19 but she suspects a growth spurt is coming on.

Lukoi stuff: The Enforcers: Skoll and Hati after the wolves who chase the sun and moon in Norse mythology.

The woman Richard is supposed to have raped is someone he dated but not had sex with is Betty Schaffer. After arriving in Tennessee, they all go to cabins owned by Verne, the local Ulfric. The attorney that Catherine recommended to Anita calls: Carl Belisarius. Richard refuses to see him saying that he’s innocent so he has no need of an attorney. Anita goes to see him.

More talk about Brewster’s Law that would give Vampire Executioner’s federal marshal status.

We meet Shang-Da, the 6′ Chinese guy who is Richard’s Hati. Anita and Jason go to the police deparment and meet Maiden who essentially warns them that something ugly is about to happen. After the visit with Richard, they are basically attacked by some thugs. Anita, Jason and Shang-Da beat them up. Miss Millie, a local woman tries to claim Shang-Da as her grandson but no one is buying it and the local police barely let Anita and Co go.

By this time, Richard is out on bail and back at the cabins. Anita goes to talk to him and a woman comes out of his room – Lucy Winston. Richard and Anita fight then start talking about what is going on: someone is trying to say some attacks on local animals is by trolls – trolls who are a protected species and whose habitat is holding up the sale of some land. Freak the locals out, they get permission to kill the trolls, and all is well.

Richard realizes that Anita ran to Jean Claude and “pulled his body around you like a shield to keep me away.” Anita went back to her room and the vamps were up so she didn’t get any time to herself. Daniel calls and says that his mother is having an altercation with Betty Shaffer in a local bar called The Happy Cowboy. Anita goes and drags Mrs. Zeeman, Charlotte, out of the bar. Jason, it turns out, is a reader with a good vocabulary. (You never know what’s going to be important later!) They leave the bar and go back to the cabins to get a lesson in werewolf etiquette for an event that is to happen later that evening. For example, Anita learns how to properly greet the alphas and how a were asks for protection. Jamil seemed surprised that Anita had been reading wolf books to know something of wolf behavior.

While they are there, Asher and Damian bring in Nathaniel. He’s been attacked by local vampires as a warning and been infected with something that will rot him from the inside out. Asher and Damian can cure him but it’s risky to them. They suck all the “corruption” out of Nathaniel, then Damian starts to get sick.

Anita heals him. They find out that Nathaniel went with this woman, Mira, to have sex and she gave him to the vampires. She had been paid to do so. Verne shows up and Anita tells him. They form an alliance of sorts to do something or other to Colin but they dont’ know what. Verne doesn’t want to kill Colin as wolves aren’t Colin’s animal to call and who knows who will come next?

Various and sundry things happen, Anita learns that she can channel the munin with sex. Someone has kidnapped Mrs. Zeeman and Daniel, so Anita gets them back. Richard is now outed to his mother for being a werewolf.

There were a lot of other things that happened but I’ve decided that I’m sick of the play by play. From now on, just general notes plus who is who. Maybe next time I read these, I’ll write more detail in the remaining books.