This is the 7th novel in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. This is a wonderful series encompassing all aspects of the supernatural--not just vampires. Hamilton has constructed some wonderful characters, and she knows how to work a plot. Her writing style is excellent, keeping you glued to the page wondering what could possibly happen next. This is a series that you really need to read in order, the characters travel throughout the series and there is social interactions between them that get more complicated as the series gets further along (see my reviews for the other previous six novels).
Now for a bit of background, in Hamilton's alternate version of the United States some of the monsters are considered citizens with rights. Vampires are people, they own businesses, trying to get the right to vote, and even date (and yes that too). In fact Anita's boyfriend is the vampire in charge of St. Louis, MO (master of the city-- all vampires in the area obey him and other vamps must ask his permission to live in St. Louis). You also must have an execution order to legally kill a vampire. Lycanthropy(wereanimals) is a disease and you must not discriminate against people with the disease(but it happens anyways). You come across all manner of witches, fey, and necromancers. That all make a living with their magic.
Anita Blake is a necromancer, she can raise all manner of dead things--including vampires during their daytime slumber, and she is a vampire executioner. She carries all manners of weapons, a sawed-off shotgun, a firestar, a browning--all with silver rounds, a long sword and throwing knives all with the highest silver content possible. Silver will kill a Lycanthrope and hurt a vampire. She is embroiled in the monster politics. She is the lupa (female head of a werewolf pack even though she is not a lycanthrope herself), the girlfriend of Jean-Claude the master vampire of St. Louis, and the head of a wereleopard pard (she killed their previous leader). This girl is tough and gets rough playing with the monsters. She protects her own and takes no crap.
The plot for this novel revolves first around settling some "social" issues left undone in the previous novel. Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard (head of the Werewolf pack) did some damage to the were-social structure in the previous novel. Then a small problem of the vampire council which comes to St. Louis. These are the most powerful vampires in the world and they come to look into a death that happened a couple of novels back (he happened to be on the council) what they mainly succeed in doing is torturing some of Anita's "people." They have to find a way to deal with the council and live. Plus a human group against supernaturals stages attacks on the supernatural community and the council's presence is causing some other problems due to their power that Anita must fix. Thrown in for good measure is this complicated love triangle between Anita, Jean-Claude and Richard. She was dating both of them, but then slept with Jean-Claude which of course made Richard mad and depressed. The catch is that they are bound by power marks and will probably live hundreds of years connected to one another. This could cause a problem.
We gather some interesting characters in this novel. We inherit the wereleopard pard which gave us Nathaniel who I believe will be interesting in the future. Plus we see an angry side of Richard that we have not seen before. Jean-Claude is more humanized characterized by his love for Anita. Hamilton does an excellent job filling out her characters giving them all their own personality. Anita is definitely a sassy character, that can't help shooting off her mouth.
This is a great novel. Hamilton knows how to work a plot and a character. Her style is very easy to read and flows well. It will keep you turning the pages. You won't find a better supernatural series out there. Warning: Does have some sexual content and some violence.
Recommended:
