Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton 06/05/08

Here’s the synopsis:

Jason’s father is dying and he is going home to Asheville, NC to see him. Jason and his father have a contentious relationship at best. Jason asks Anita to go to Asheville with him to see his father. Mr. Schuyler thinks that Jason is gay so Jason thinks having Anita along will make things easier.

When they arrive in Asheville, there is a big commotion because people think Jason is actually his cousin, Keith, who is the governor of NC’s son and planning to be married in a few days. Keith is also, it must be said, the sort of guy who gets into all manner of trouble. He’s also complicated Anita’s life since Keith has run off with the wife of a Master of the City and the Master is pretty ticked about that.

Of course, since it’s an Anita book, things start to go metaphysically crazy. Marmee Noir shoes up again and both helps and hurts Anita, as is usual for her. Anita winds up with a new animal to call.

I’m not among the crew that thinks that Anita has too much sex and that the books have all gone downhill. The Harlequin was among my favorites of this series. In this one, however, I think there was too much lead-in and not enough story. The cover promises Marmee Noir and she doesn’t show up until quite late in the book. I’m also good and sick of Richard’s behavior, but I think it was somewhat explained with this book.

I think this book was one of those that, occasionally, an author has to write basically to bridge to the next part of the story. It’s backstory, if you will. Overall, I enjoyed it but it won’t be one of my favorite Anita books.

More Anita Blake

I’ve been reading but not writing.  I have finished:

Cerulean Sins and Incubus Dreams.

I didn’t write a thing about either of them.  I’m reading “Micah’ and chances are good I won’t write about that either.  I have library books to read, I have other books to read, I have books to read for work … and I’m just reading about Anita. 

Narcissus in Chains by Laurell K. Hamilton 01/06/07

The thing with the Anita books is that there is always so much going on.  It’s hard to be succint.

The main themes were that the leaders of the were-groups were being kidnapped.  Anita agreed to help figure that out.  Along the way, she finds out that Micah was intending to give her leopards to this guy but then realized that he couldn’t do it.

Also Gregory had been taken by the werewolves because he’d “killed” their lupa (Anita) by making her a wereleopard.  Or so they thought.  Anita went and rescued him.

This is brief but I started the next book and now they are running together.

Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton

This is the Edward book. Obsidian Butterfly is both a club and a vampire.

Edward calls Anita to come out to New Mexico to help him figure out a case.   He isn’t sure what is killing people so he needs a preternatural expert.  Also, Anita killed Harley and Edward told her she’d owe him a favor.

Edward goes by “Ted Forrester” in NM and Anita meets, shockingly, his fiancee, Donna,  and her children, Peter and Becca.

There are several bodies who have been, essentially, skinned alive but no one knows how or by what.  Lieutenant Marks takes an immediate dislike to Anita, on religious grounds.  He says to her at one point, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” (quoting Exodus 22:1

Anita and Edward drive back to Santa Fe and Anita “feels” something. She asks Edward/Ted to stop so she can “feel” it and she isn’t sure what “it” is. They get to Ted/Edward’s house and Anita meets Bernardo who tries to charm her but she doesn’t fall for it.

Anita meets “Obsidian Butterfly” who is an Aztec vampire. She has several conquistadores that she has kept to punish as long as they can be punished. We’re going on 400 years or so now.

Anita and Bernardo go to Los Duenos to meet another necromancer who has a reputation for bad stuff, Nicandro Baco. AB asks him to help her with whatever that presence is that is freaking her out. He seems sort of nervous about it, too.

The victims in the hospital actually aren’t alive. Their “master” is somehow keeping them alive. Anita realizes this and goes back to the hospital to try to do something but is too late. Another creature kills a couple of officers, kills some babies and then dies. Its master is pretty ticked off about it and Anita nearly dies.

I’d forgotten that I didn’t really like this book. I skimmed through the last half since I was bored, so I can’t really tell you what happened. Other than: Peter and Becca were kidnapped but were rescued. The bad guys called Edward “Undertaker.” Now he has several aliases: Ted Forester, Death and the Undertaker.

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.

Burnt Offerings by Laurell K. Hamilton

Burnt Offerings in another vampire business, this one not owned by JC. Anita actually says she likes going to this place and it’s not in the vampire district.

The book opens with Captain Pete McKinnon in Anita’s office. There has been what they think is an arson and need Anita’s help. At the end of the meeting, Anita gets a call to come pick up Larry at the hospital. He’s okay but needs a ride home. He’d been called to do a vampire staking but arrived at the morgue and there was no paperwork. He went to investigate and found one of the nurses trying to stake the vamp. Turns out it was one of the doctors on staff - he’d gone into a closet when the sun came up and this woman didn’t think vamps should be doctors.

Anita gets a call from Stephen and Nathaniel is introduced. Anita killed the wereleopards’ pack leader so now she gets the job until she finds someone else. Zane has been trying to act as leader but not doing well. Zane is pretty happy that Anita outpowers him and takes over. He’d been trying but not doing a good job.

Richard is off getting a master’s degree and pretty much being depressed and suicidal and, typical of Richard, an emotional wimp. Like *that* is going to get Anita. Sylvie is acting as pack leader in his absence. Against Sylvie’s orders to not help the wereleopards, Anita, as lupa, orders three wolves to come to the hospital and act as bodyguards for both Nathaniel and Stephen.

Anita and JC have a date at a fancy restaurant. While they are there, representatives from the Council show up. Apparently the Council is there because Mr. Oliver (who Anita killed in Circus of the Damned) was a Council member and to kill a Council member means you have to take their seat. They think that JC did it. JC doesn’t want to be on the Council because he knows that he’s not strong enough to hold the position so he’d be killed.

Asher makes his first appearance. He’s still pretty irate with JC after several hundred years because he thinks that JC let his human servant, Julianna, die. Asher was tortured by the Church with holy water so half of his face is scarred and half of his body. JC realizes that he can not feel his vampires and his wolves, so he knows that Council is at Circus of the Damned.

When they arrive, Liv shows up. Liv has gone over to the Council side and betrayed JC and all their wolves and vampires that are his. When JC and AB walk through the building, they find a person’s skin nailed to the wall with silver nails. The question is, whose is it? It takes a while for us to find out that it’s Rafael’s. The Traveler is there in the body of Willie McCoy.

Fernando comes in with Hanna, who is Willie’s girlfriend, and two wereleopards: a black one and a yellow one. Fernando is also a shapeshifter. His father, Padma, joins the party and Anita isn’t sure exactly what he is because he feels like both vampire and shapeshifter which is supposed to be impossible. Turns out the black wereleopard is Elizabeth who hates Anita for killing Gabriel. Vivian came in with Padma and seems to be appealing to Anita to help her but Anita doesn’t know why. Vivian is a wereleopard.

AB and JC find Damian with a sword in his heart. He is being guarded by a new vampire, Warrick. They aren’t sure they can save him but they do, with Warrick’s help. Yvette has Jason and had a choke collar around his neck. JC gets him away from Yvette. But that isn’t everything: Sylvie (who is a lesbian) has been raped by Fernando and is bad emotional shape as well as physical. Sylvie was tortured because she would not give up the pack. AB promises Sylvie that all of them who had hurt her will die.

They take Sylvie and Rafael to the shapeshifter hospital but tell Dr. Lillian that they are going to have to move because Elizabeth knows where the hospital is and she is with the other side. Sylvie’s partner, Gwen, is with Sylvie when AB goes to see her at the hospital. They tell Anita that she is the wereleopards leoparde lionne, the “rampant leopard” who is the protector, the defender. AB also finds out the Vivian expected AB to rescue her, so now AB feels that she has to go back and rescue her, somehow. Liv was the one who hurt Sylvie. AB manages to get them free for the night.

Belle Morte is mentioned but so far hasn’t shown up.

Dolph calls Anita to question a witness. First she goes to Burnt Offerings to talk to Detective Perry. She finds out what happened, then goes to the police station. When she arrives at the police station, there are penguins everywhere. Zerbrowski’s work, she is pretty sure. AB ignores them and goes to talk to the witness. The witness, Vicki Pierce, says that this vampire bit her and she threw alcohol on him and then lit him with a lighter. Vamps will burn until someone puts them out or they are burned to ashes. AB figures out that VP is lying.

More of Dolph’s attitude toward Anita with regard to JC.

AB goes back to the hospital and Zane and another woman, Cherry, show up. Vivian isn’t with them and neither is Gregory, Stephen’s brother. Padma said that anyone who wished to acknowledge AB’s dominance and could walk out could leave. Vivian was unconscious and Gregory’s legs were broken.

Anita is at the hospital, more or less recovering, when Richard shows up, they fight but then they go to get Vivian and Gregory. Richard finds out that Fernando raped Sylvie.

They meet Gideon and Captain Thomas Carswell, who are with Padma. Human servant and animal to call, just as AB and Richard are for JC. They all go in to get Vivian and Gregory and Richard, foolishly, tries to kill Fernando. In order to stop him, Anita takes his beast for the first time at Gideon and Thomas’ suggestion and it works. They take V and G back to Anita’s house.

Vivian won’t let any of the men touch her so Anita has to carry her but she is still wearing the high heels and dress, so it’s hard and she at one point has to send someone to get Cherry to help. Cherry comes and takes Vivian and Anita goes to see why there are so many butterflies around and is that really a vampire she sees lurking around her woods? It is. It’s Warrick. Turns out he’s a master vampire after all and Yvette has somehow been keeping his powers under wraps, so to speak. Turns out, he thinks this is all a sign from God that he isn’t eternally damned.

Ronnie and Louie show up at Anita’s ready to run. Ronnie and Louie are dating. Richard is there. At some point, earlier in the book, JC and the other vampires went to Anita’s to sleep in the basement. He also took a bunch of gifts, including flowers and strew the gifts about the house. Richard isn’t happy about it. Ronnie doesn’t like JC and Anita realizes that Louie, who is Richard’s best friend, doesn’t like her anymore. Richard and Anita fight again and a delivery man comes and tries to kill Anita.

Another subplot: there is a terrorist group trying to re-enact “the Inferno” or “Day of Cleansing”, depending upon your viewpoint and is targeting all vamps and also the non-vamps who are known to be associated with them. There was a fire at the main branch of the Church of Eternal Life and Anita goes to help. But first, she goes to the hospital. She has to try to help Nathaniel. She winds up “calling the munin” - channeling Raina, essentially and nearly having sex with Nathaniel but she doesn’t and he’s healed anyway. Anita sends them all to her house.

Off to the Church of Eternal Life. There are “revenent” vampires there who attack some fire fighters and Anita. Larry is there, along with Detective Reynolds, who he is dating but both are okay. Anita wants to go to the Council for help. She figures out that the Council being there is what is causing all these vampires to wake up early and the new vampires to go revenent. The Traveler came to the Church and took over the body of the revenent vamp and stopped the attack. Turns out Vicki Pierce was dating Harry, who owned Burnt Offerings and a human anti-vamp guy. She staged the scene at Burnt Offerings so that it wouldn’t be the only vamp business not to have been hit.

Finally, they had to go to “dinner” with the Council. Anita wins over Asher, shockingly enough. Yvette gets mad that she doesn’t get what she wants. Padma gives up Fernando and Liv to be killed by Sylvie. Once again, Anita and JC get themselves out of trouble. Elizabeth joins Anita’s pard (the wolves are lukoi, the leopards are pard.) Warrick burns himself and Yvette to death.

The leopards call Anita their Nimir-Ra or “leopard queen.” Nathaniel wants to move in with Anita but instead she pays for his aparment. Nathaniel is a ‘pet’ and needs someone to take care of him. Stephen and Vivian are dating. Asher stayed in St. Louis.

Lukoi: thronos Rokke - the Throne Rock people.

Council Members: Belle Morte, Padma, the Traveler, Morte d’Amour, Oliver/Earthmover (dead)

The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton 12/21/07

This is one of the few books that doesn’t take its name from a club or other business. “The killing dance” is the werewolf’s description of both sex and the fight for succession.

The book begins with Dominic Dumare, Sabin and Jean-Claude in Anita’s office.  Sabin wants Anita to help cure of his “rotting disease.”  Grossly, that’s exactly what happens: Sabin is rotting but being a vampire, he won’t die.  Just rot.  Dumare is also a necromancer and offers to teach Anita more about being a necromancer.

In this book, Anita is JC’s acknowledged human servant but what no one else knows is that she does not have the marks so she isn’t, in the truest sense of the word, his human servant.

Anita leaves that meeting to go with Richard to a dinner party at Catherine’s.  Catherine likes Richard and wants Anita to dump Jean-Claude and marry Richard.  Also there are Monica and Robert.   Monica is the one that nearly got Catherine killed and Robert is now her husband.  Monica is pregnant.  While at the party, Anita finds out that someone has put a hit out on her for $250,000.  They called Edward, who refused.  He thought he’d get to kill more people guarding Anita.  If he took the hit, he’d only get to kill her.

Richard and Anita help Mrs. Pringle take a new TV into her apartment and Custard (Mrs. P’s dog) lets Anita know that there is someone in her apartment.  Murder attempt number one.  Anita has to go to the police station and give a statement.

Anita has to spend the night at Richard’s to avoid putting her neighbors at risk. While there, Edward calls and tells her that the price has increased to $500,000. Anita must know what the hit is out for her for but she just doesn’t know it.

Also, while they are there, Richard checks his messages and there is one from Stephen who is trying to avoid being in one of Raina’s movies. Richard and Anita go rescue him. On the way, they fight about whether or not Richard should just kill Marcus. Richard also gives Anita a lesson in werewolf culture. Ulfric is pack leader, Lupa is his mate and alpha female. Lukoi is what werewolves call themselves. Freki is second in command. Geri is the second second. Freki is one of Odin’s wolves, Odin being the chief Norse god. King Kykaon of Arcadia (Greek) was a werewolf and they call themselves lukoi in honor of him. Richard is now Fenrir, the challenger. Fenrir was the giant wolf who killed Odin.

When they get there, Anita realizes it’s a set up. Sebastian challenges Richard because he knows that Richard will not kill. However, Richard is much stronger than Sebastain and forces him to “eat power” and so Sebastian can not make the challenge. Jamil shows up. They all want Richard to stop with his boy scout act.

Anita hears Stephen scream and goes to find and rescue him. There she finds him being raped and his brother participating. Richard does what he needs to do then joins Anita. Again he is challenged. He tells the wolves there not to bother Stephen and they say “yeah, so what? You tell us this but you won’t do anything about it!” Anita announces that she will kill anyone who harms Stephen.

Anita and Richard fight on the way home. Richard goes out to patrol for assassins and sends Stephen in to sleep with Anita because he’s scared. She wakes up with him and realizes that this is the very first time that she has actually spent the entire night with a man. Anita waks up and hears voices, so she goes out to investigate. Richard has called a meeting of “his” wolves and they are there. Dr. Lillian is there stitching up Richard. Richard and Anita have another fight. This is when Anita first really begins to think that she will have to break up with Richard. He won’t kill, which is a character flaw in Anita’s opinion, given that he is a werewolf.

The lukoi have their meeting, along with Rafael,Louie (wererats) and Christine (weretiger). The tell Anita that JC has withdrawn his support of Marcus and given it to Richard. Sylvie (a lesbian) threatens to make Anita a werewolf. Richard says no one is to be infected against their will, it’s his order. He’s challenged. Rafael says he will kill to protect Anita. Richard finally says he will kill anyone who goes against his orders. Richard says to the pack “this is my lupa/ KNow her scent, know her skin. She has shed our blood, and shed her blood for us. She stands as protector for those weaker than herself. She will kill for us, if we ask. She is your alpha.” Sylvie and Neal refuse to acknowledge her as alpha. Neal challenges Anita and Anita wins but it’s pretty much by luck. Sylvie acknowledges her as alpha but not as dominant to her.

Edward arrives to find the mess and tells Anita that the contract has been picked up again. Anita has a date with JC to go to a club opening (Danse Macabre) that night and she is “outed” as dating the Master of the City on national television. She isn’t happy about that.

Anita meets Liv, a female vampire. She isn’t impressed by The Executioner. They have an exchange. Anita finds out that JC isn’t having sex with anyone. Damian shows up. We meet Cassandra, a werewolf. Sabin is at the opening. Willie and Liv both try to guard Anita. Damian goes on stage and uses his powers to bespell a human, Anita stops him. Anita tries to talk to the woman (Karen) but Liv comes over and Karen faints dead away. Anita sends Liv on her way while she, Cassandra and a new woman Anabelle Smith take Karen into the bathroom. Raina shows up, shows off and tells Anita that she is JC’s partner in Danse Macabre, which Anita did not know. Raina announces that there is a cab waiting for Karen to take her home and Anita sends Cassandra out with Karen to meet the cab. Raina leaves. Turns out, Anabelle is the next assassin and tries to kill Anita but Anita kills her first. Ooops. Now there are police involved again.

Anita is being interrogated by Detective Greeley and Rizzo when Dolph shows up. He takes Anita to a crime scene. It’s Robert. Zerbrowski is there and Anita is glad to see him all healed after his attack by a shapeshifting witch. This is the first time we see that Dolph is bothered by Anita dating JC and Richard. Detective Reynolds is introduced -a detective witch. The first detective with any magic and she specifically asked for RPIT. Monica had to go to the hospital because she nearly lost her baby after finding out Robert was dead. That probably sucked … I’m sure she thought that marrying a vamp would ensure that she would never be a widow. Edward calls and tells Anita she needs to go into hiding at Circus of the Damned until he can find out who is trying to kill her. Richard, JC and Anita all manage to get into various and sundry fights, then the try the triumverate business again and it works. Pretty well … Anita raises several zombies and 3 vampires: Damian, Liv and Willie. Anita isn’t sure she can put them back and still have them wake up as vampires. She calls on Dominic who is also a necromancer to help. They think she can heal Sabin. They put the vamps back to bed but Anita passes out because when she tries to send Damian back, something in him pushed her out of him.

Edward shows up and tells them that the person who put the hit out on Anita is Marcus. Richard decides he can, in fact, kill Marcus. Edward introduces Harley to Anita.

Cassandra helps Anita dress for The Big Event. Richard goes to challenge Marcus and changes while on top of Anita. She freaks, goes back to The Circus of the Damned and has sex with JC. Richard comes over the next morning, figures it out and freaks out. Cassandra shows up to help clean up the mess, punches Anita and takes her to Gabriel and Raina. Cassandra is Damian and Sabin’s shapeshifter third, they too are a triumverate. Anita manages to kill Gabriel because Richard and JC give her 3 of the 4 marks. She has their power and she kills Gabriel and Raina. Harley and Edward show up but Anita has to kill Harley because he loses track of Edward and starts to freak out.

In the end, Richard gets mad at Anita and refuses to talk to him. Anita loves him but there isn’t anything she can do.

Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton 11/20/07

Bloody Bones begins with Bert showing Anita photos of a construction site that is filled with bones. There is a dispute between two families as to who owns the land. One family won the legal argument because the second family couldn’t prove that there was a family burial plot on the land. It appears that the plot has been found so Anita has been hired to raise as many bodies as she can, preferably all, and find out who they are.

This is the book that has the scene between Anita and Richard that I think is so hot: the one where she goes to see him at school to tell him that she’ll be missing their date for this business trip.

This book also seems to be the one that I can remember the least about. I hardly remember it at all.

Anita is afraid of flying and has to take a helicopter to the place where she is to meet Raymond Stirling to view the remains on the mountain and decide what she can do. He insists that he and Anita go alone to the top of the mountain and there he tries to bribe her to say the bodies are not Bouviers, even if they are. She, of course, declines.

While she is there, she gets a page from Dolph. There is a homicide near Branson that he wants her to go check out. The local police aren’t that excited about her coming but they have little choice. The officer in charge is a woman and she isn’t impressed with Anita, really. Anita tells the officer, Sergeant Freemont that it’s a vampire kill but a dangerous vampire since 3 boys were killed and none tried to run, which means that a very strong vampire was able to cloud their minds.

Anita left the crime scene with Larry and they went to get something to eat. Anita decided to try going to “Bloody Bones” since it’s owned by a Bouvier. She goes there and meets Dorcas (Dorrie) and Magnus Bouvier. Turns out Magnus is a fairy and he uses glamor to have “Lovers Night” once at week at his restaurant. It’s vaguely illegal. What alarms Anita is that Magnus can affect her mind in ways that vampire even can’t. She also finds out that he lost his temper and tore down some trees outside the restaurant. Anita reports to Dolph that he’s a possible suspect but asks him to keep the fact that he is a fairy out of the investigation until it’s decided whether he’s a true suspect or not. Magnus uses glamor to escape police, so he’s facing a felony charge, even though he wasn’t guilty of the crime they were questioning him about. Anita has no idea why he would run, if he wasn’t guilty.

Anita talks to Dolph when he pages her about another murder. In this one, a 17 year old girl, Ellie Quinlan is found dead in her bedroom. It appears to be a straight killing, not related to the prior killing. Ellie appears to have known her attacker because she is dressed in a provocative manner and she quieted the family dog when the dog barked when her boyfriend came over. Her boyfriend, Andy, of whom Ellie’s parents disapproved has been missing for a couple of weeks. Anita thinks that Andy is a new vamp and was trying to bring Ellie over. Anita isn’t sure why Andy left Ellie at home, though. Ellie’s family - her father - wants her staked immediately so that she doesn’t rise as a vampire. Anita wants to stall them, partly because to stake a person who intends to rise as a vampire is murder. Anita gets more information out of Ellie’s brother, Jeff, than from her parents.

Anita and Larry go back to help the local police find Ellie’s killer. Officer Granger, Officer Wallace, Office Coltrain and Sheriff St. John go with Anita and Larry, looking for the vamps. The vamps find them. The vamps also get into the Quinlan’s house, take Jeff and kill Sheriff St. John’s wife, Beth. Officer Coltrain dies. Anita realizes that the vampire is “ancient.”

Detective Freemont is pretty mad that Anita didn’t contact her about the Quinlans. The Quinlans threaten to sue Anita. The vampires not only took Jeff, but Ellie’s body. Anita calls Jean-Claude to help her contact the local Master of the City. It turns out that the land had been JC’s but he agreed to have it given to someone else because he thought the area could sustain two vampire kisses.

Anita and Larry return to the Stirling Project and Magnus Bouvier shows up and tells Anita not to raise the dead. The Stirling crew threatens to shoot Bouvier but Anita objects. They have words and Anita thinks she’s fired. Larry and Anita go back to the hotel thinking that they will probably have to leave it since they are no longer working for Stirling. JC and Jason are there. Lionel Bayard shows up to tell Anita it was all a misunderstanding and that Stirling wants her to continue.

Jean-Claude’s coffin was stolen at the airport, so he has to stay in Anita’s room. She isn’t that happy about it. Jason stays with him. Anita gets the sofa. Before she goes to bed, Anita calls Federal Agent Bradford (who had shown up at the Quinlans after Jeff was taken) and gave him a possible name for who could have committed the murders: Xavier, a pedophile vampire.
Dorcas Bouvier shows up thinking that Magnus is with Anita and tells Anita that he has gone missing. Dorcas also tells Anita about Rawhead and Bloody Bones, which is supposedly only a myth but is real. The Bouvier’s ancestor made a deal with it that gave his descendants fey power even though they were mixed blood. If Anita raises the dead on Stirling’s land, then it will loose RBB and that would be bad. I was expecting RBB to be something like Dominga’s creation in a previous book but it wasn’t. More on that later.

The next evening, JC tells Anita that they will go see the Master of the City, Seraphina. JC seems excited to see her and Anita gets at least vaguely jealous. They have to dress up and Anita is ill-prepared but she does what she can.

They get to the house and are greeted by Ivy, then Janos. The rules are that JC, Anita & Co will not be hurt if they don’t attack first. However, they were tricked: Seraphina’s crew has two human women who will be tortured. Serafina’s vamps were hoping that Jason and Larry would volunteer to take their place. They did, of course. Jason was to have sex with 2 female vampires - who promptly began to rot all over him. Apparently, some vampires can rot and then get back to “normal.” This, needless to say, freaks Jason out. JC challenges Janos. Janos more or less kills JC but Anita gives him CPR then lets him have her blood, Jason gives his as well and JC survives. Seraphina declares a truce.

Magnus is with these guys. Seraphina wants Anita because she is a necromancer. Seraphina tries to get to Anita by giving Anita visions of her mother. Seraphina can even make the scent of Anita’s mother’s perfume noticeable to Larry. Seraphina can raise ghosts, a unique talent among vampires.

It’s in this book that we first learn about The Council. Seraphina doesn’t want to submit to the laws of the Council.

Anita comes closer to making love with JC but she feels like she is cheating on Richard.

Anita and Larry to go try to raise the zombies at the Stirling Project. Seraphina sends Ivy to try to kill Anita and Anita kills Ivy. When she does, she has enough power to raise RBB. Anita raises the Bouviers, but also RBB. Stirling says that now that RBB is dead, they will kill Anita and Larry. RBB promised Stirling all the land and more. Anita orders the zombies to kills Ms. Harrison, which is a capital offense even in self defense. They do it. Bayard dies as well. Stirling is still alive. Janos shows up and announces that they have Jeff. They tell Anita that Seraphina wants to see her again and then they kill Stirling. For various reasons. The vamps are “in league with” RBB.

Seraphina and JC have their words, then RBB shows up. RBB is basically a 10 foot tall being in human form but skinless. Gross, right? Seraphina makes a big mistake: she lied to RBB. She told him that if he did what she wanted, she’d free him. When you lie to a fey, all bets are off. They aren’t bound to the original agreement. RBB tries to kill Magnus for having kept RBB captive for so long. Seraphina wants Anita and somehow bespells her. Anita passes out and dreams of her mother, but realizes that the dream isn’t real. She wakes up in a coffin with Seraphina. Magnus is there, guarding them. Anita realizes that she can control more of the dead than just zombies when she is able to wake Ellie from her sleep during the day and control her. She gets Ellie to hold onto Magnus. When he tries to chase Anita outside, Ellie bursts into flames and burns Magnus alive.

Anita gets a ride from two old people and goes to the police deparment. She tells the agents what she knows and they go to burn the place down as the only way to kill Seraphina and Xavier is to burn them. Seraphina tries one last time to trick Anita by pretending to be her mother. It sort of works, but Anita realizes in time to tell the police to handcuff her and put her in a car, which they do. They have to sedate her as the fire kills Seraphina, but they do kill Seraphina.

Anita has to go to the hospital but everyone is ultimately okay.

So: in this book we see the first of Anita’s abilities as a necromancer as they relate to vampires. Here is the second time that Anita is considered dominant: this time with vampires, she is acknowledged as a master. Not master vampire, obviously, but master something. We find out that vampires only have first names, for the most part. If a vamp has a last name s/he is both American and newly dead. We find out about JC’s childhood and that he was both a whipping boy for a noble family’s son and also that when he was first made a vampire that he was given to whomever wanted him. He wound up with Seraphina back then because promised him power to get away from them and he didn’t know that the power to be a master vampire was within him.

The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton

The book begins with Anita meeting a client who is looking for his wife - a lycanthrope - who is missing.  He doesn’t want to go to the police because of the publicity.  Anita refers him to Ronnie.

Then Anita goes to a date with Richard. They see “Guys and Dolls.”  Jean Claude shows up at the end and informs Anita that Richard is in a succession “battle.”  I don’t think that’s the right word but I don’t have the book here to check it out.   She gets called out of that date to go to a murder scene.

On her way to the murder, she runs into Gretchen who is in love with Jean Claude and thinks Anita wants him.

This is the scene with Sheriff Titus and Deputy Aikensen  They are small town cops with an attitude and aren’t impressed with The Executioner.  They think that the dead body they have is a bear attack, despite the fact that there have been no bear in the area for years.  Eventually, they agree that it is not a bear but Anita isn’t sure what actually did do it. They send tracks that they made plaster casts of to the university lab, where Dr. Louis Fane (a wererat) works to analyze.

Anita goes home to find Irving, her shapeshifter reporter friend, waiting for her. He’s in a bind: Richard has ordered all The Pack to keep Anita out of Pack business but Marcus wants to meet Anita so he orders Irving to bring Anita to him. Irving tells Anita that he thinks that she will protect him. As it happens, that means she is dominant to him.

We meet Raina, Gabriel, Marcus, Kaspar Gunderson and Jason for the first time. Rafael, the Wererat King, is there as well. Christine, but I can’t remember if she shows up later or not.

Irving takes Anita to meet Marcus at The Lunatic Cafe (owned by Raina) and they establish that Anita, while not Pack, is dominant in that Irving has asked Anita for protection and she’s agreed. Marcus basically engineered that scenario but Anita uses some fairly circular logic to get out of whatever Marcus orginally planned. Marcus pushes Anita into killing one of his bodyguards, Alfred. Marcus thought Anita was bluffing when she said she’s kill Afred if Alfred didn’t back down. She wasn’t, he discovered.

We meet Jason, who is at this point a fairly new werewolf because the smell of blood and the energy of the room is bringing on the change. Jason is pretty interested in Anita - and not in a good way. Marcus helps Anita get out of the room when the wereanimals decide to eat Alfred. On the way out, Marcus gives Anita some papers and tells her that Kaspar will answer any questions. We find out Kaspar is a wereswan and we see that Edward is at The Lunatic Cafe.

Marcus needs Anita’s help, but for what?  Remember the missing lycanthrope in the beginning of the book? She is only one of several.

Edward calls Anita the next day and she goes to his hotel to see a film he has - it’s a snuff film: 2 weres (a wolf and a panther) have sex with a human on camera and then the wolf (who turns out to be Alfred) kills her. Edward has been hired to kill both weres. Anita brings Richard to see the film - he didn’t know about the killing - he thought Raina had done sex videos but didn’t know about the killing.

Anita buys a Christmas present for her half-brother, Josh. Since LKH doesn’t usually have extraneous details, chances are good that Josh is going to show up at some point.

A reporter, Elvira Drew, shows up at Anita’s office looking for a wererat to interview for a book she is writing.

Anita and Richard argue about R’s “boy scout” tendencies. He thinks he can remain in the pack as the second without fighting Marcus since to do so means one of them has to die.

Gretchen attacks Anita and Louis and Anita gets a concussion. Nonetheless she has to carry Louis out of the place they are so the police don’t find him and “out” him. Anita calls Richard who is L’s best friend. Richard and Stephen show up and take care of them. Before Gretchen will leave them alone, Anita has to agree to go tell Jean Claude that Richard has proposed and Anita accepted. Anita gets there and does it, JC finds out what Gretchen did and puts her in “the coffin” as punishment. JC tells Anita that he wants a chance to date her before she makes up her mind.

After Anita returns from telling JC, Richard is still at her apartment. He watches over her as she sleeps so that he can wake her every hour. Dolph calls and tells her that they’ve found a skin. She goes. Titus and Aikensen are there and Anita has an altercation of sorts, of course. They find a naga. The skin was his. The naga goes to the hospital. Anita goes home.

She gets there and both Richard and JC are there. JC announces that things have to be equal - Anita can’t kiss Richard unless she plans to kiss JC, etc. They feel the first stirrings of the power that happens between the three of them.

Anita agrees to go with Ronnie to talk to George Smitz because Ronnie has photos of him with another woman. He admits to killing his wife but has no idea about the other missing lycanthropes.

Richard calls and tells Anita that Jason has gone missing. Anita figures out who has the missing lycanthropes but Jason isn’t among them. She gets a call from Kaspar and she, Edward and Richard go there. It’s a trap, of course. Kaspar gives Titus and Aikensen lycanthropes and they, for a price, allow people to hunt them. Jason is there. They escape, with Titus and Aikensen killed but Kaspar disappears.

Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton

This is the book that got me started on the LKH books. My friend’s husband said this was one of his favorite books, so I decided to read it. I found out that it was third in a series, so I read the first two and enjoyed them.

In this book, we have more Jean Claude and we meet Richard and Stephen.

The book begins with Karl Inger and Jeremy Reubens from Humans First trying to get Anita to give them Jean Claude’s daytime resting place. As it happens, she doesn’t know it, so she can’t tell them.

Anita gets a call from Dolph. There has been a murder. It turns out that several vampires - at least 5- have attacked the person. Anita decides she needs to see Jean Claude to find out if he knows who this Master Vampire might be.

She meets JC at Circus of the Damned, another business he owns. It really is a circus with supernatural creatures. Anita meets Stephen (a werewolf) as he escorts her from the entrance to where Jean Claude is. Anita is tricked into a fight with Marguerite, the human servant of Yasmeen. Richard is also there, naked in bed, for some reason. I think we never find out what it was.

The fight is interrupted because there is “the world’s biggest snake” that has gone amok and killed its trainer. It takes everyone to get the thing under control, including Anita.

Anita and Jean Claude spend an inordinate amount of time debating whether Anita is or isn’t Jean Claude’s human servant. She has two of the 4 marks necessary to make her “officially” his human servant so she is resisting.

Anita takes Richard and Stephen home and Richard asks her out. She says yes. While working out with Ronnie, Anita realizes she has made a date for a night she is supposed to be at a party, so Anita asks Richard to go to that with her.

Again, Anita gets called by Dolph. There’s another murder. This time it’s a woman. Anita realizes that the woman is going to rise as a vampire. They thought she couldn’t since she’d been bitten by so many vampires. She realizes that the first victim wasn’t put in the special vampire room because she’d said that so she, Dolph, Zerbrowski and others go to the morgue to see what they can do. They find that the vamp had, in fact, been put in the special vamp room but he’d broken out.

The next thing that happens is that Anita finds out that Bert has hired another animator, Larry. She meets Larry and they are attacked by vampires. She doesn’t know who these “bad guys” are but one of them was made a vampire as a very small boy.

At some point before this, Edward shows up and tells Anita he needs to know who the Master of the City is. For some reason, Anita lies and says she doesn’t know. She doesn’t even know why since she doesn’t like Jean Claude at all.

Anita meets up with a lamia, supposedly extinct but as they are immortal, there is no way for them to be extinct, right? The lamia, Melanie I think, is working for Oliver. Oliver is a million years old and supposedly damn near unkillable. He can even be outside during the daytime, which is why it takes Anita so long to figure out that he’s a vampire.

There’s another vampire, Alejandro, but I can’t remember who he is. There are too many characters for me to keep them all straight.

The lamia comes to get Anita because Mr. Oliver wants to see her. She takes her to a cave only it isn’t Mr. Oliver, it’s Alejandro. They try to convince Anita to let Alejandro give her his marks, but she refuses. She barely escapes and Edward picks her up and takes her home. Richard shows up for their date, but Anita was bitten by the lamia and the poison finally takes effect and she passes out. She wakes up in Jean Claude’s house. Richard took her there and JC has given Anita the third mark. She is furious, to say the least, so she calls Mr. Oliver and tells him that JC is the Master of the City and where his daytime resting place is, now that she knows it.

Anita finds out that Mr. Oliver’s plan is to take over the city and to send all the vampires on a killing spree since the thinks that vampires should be illegal again. Anita calls Jean Claude and tells him everything. He arranges to have a “battle” which is staged as a show at Circus of the Damned. They have the fight and somehow Mr. Oliver gives Anita all 4 marks to make her his human servant. She kills him and passes out.

Anita wakes up and Richard comes to visit. Richard, who had his throat torn out by a vampire the night before, so she finds out he’s a werewolf. Somehow, Mr. Oliver’s marks reverse Jean Claude’s so Anita no longer has any marks and is free of JC. She is relieved.

They call Anita “The Executioner” and they call Edward “Death”