Brilliant 2nd best book in series - Rated 
I loved this book, I am a new fan of the anita blake series and I have read the first 5 books now in a matter of weeks. I loved Guilty Pleasures as this really brings you into the world of Anita and the great characters in the series and just has you wanting for more. But this book was the scariest of them yet and times a little gross but thats what you want from a vampire slayer style book. I just love the main characters in this book and I also love the developing relationship with anita and Jean Claude. I have read reviews on here of the later books and people have said the sex takes over a bit but I am not there yet and to be honest I cant wait till she actually does the deed with Jean Claude as its building for the last 5 books. I am facinated with vampires and shapeshifers anyway and this book really does delve into there worlds like no other book or programme I have ever read or watched and I love it. This would make a great tv series or movie but then again would probably ruin all the images you make of the characters. But I cant wait to read the rest of the series and just hope Ms Hamilton keeps on developing anita more and more. A great book
Anita Blake is back. - Rated
Back to good old fashioned action here the sex takes a bit of a back burner for a true gore fest.
Anita Blake has been called out to deepest Missouri to raise some very old dead, to help settle a land dispute. But not only is there more going on in this dispute than meets the eye, while she is there she also gets involved in tracking down some extremely old renegade vampires, with some 'help' from Jean-Claude, but none from the local police.
The tone of the series is getting darker, richer and deeper with every book. At the start, Anita is just The Executioner, a vampire hunter sure of herself and sure that fighting the monsters is the right thing to do. Now she's not so sure that all the monsters are all bad, or even if she is still one of the good guys, as she gets more and more necromancy powers. And the price she has to pay for each new victory just keeps growing. But even if she's not quite sure anymore what she is fighting, that doesn't stop her fighting every inch of the way.
Not what I was expecting. - Rated 
This is the 5th story in a series of murder mysteries set in America and works on the premiss that vampirism has been made legal after vampires have been given rights under the US constitution.
Anita Blake, the heroine of these book, is a bounty hunter, executioner (she's paid by the state to kill vampires who are sentenced to death) and zombie raiser (oh yes, these exist too). She doesn't entirely trust them, but given the way the world presents them, can you blame her?
In this book she's approached to raise a boat load of zombies, which naturally gets her suspicions up (who really needs that many zombies?), and she sets off to investigate.
All in all it sounds like an interesting premiss doesn't it? It's clever, I must admit, but as the series has progressed I've started to notice more and more sex (and less and less of a murder mystery) in the books. Don't get me wrong, I'm no prude, but it's the sex, not the story that I'm noticing more and more.
All the guys in the books now have taught this, 6 pack that and tight the other and there seems to be ever increasing amounts of sex in the series. I have issues with any book in which people (of either sex) are primarily described through their "primary sexual characteristics" (which is a phrase I thought I'd never say in a book) and so won't be reading any more of these books.
"Zombie, vampire or police?" - Rated 
This series has been progressing nicely, and we have observed how the character of Anita Blake has evolved, become more complex and gained in abilities. In this book, she faces a new challenge, to use her animator skills to raise a whole graveyard from the death in order to settle a dispute over a plot of land. She is not sure she is able to deliver this request, but she does love a challenge!
Of course, the complications do not stop there, since while this is happening Anita has to deal with her dating reality. She is currently dating a nice high school professor, Richard, who also happens to be a werewolf. But since Jean Claude, the master vampire of the city of St Louis, also wants Anita for himself, she has promised to date both at the same time and do with Jean Claude everything she does with Richard. Finally, add a police case to the mix, in which Anita is consulting because something killed three young men with a sword in an unconventional way. As Anita says, "...an uncommon preternatural creature that uses a sword, and is faster than a vampire".
My only criticism for the book has to do with the fact that at times some of the dialogs resemble a soap opera, but this is minor. As a matter of fact, I really enjoy the way in which the author uses Anita as a narrator and makes her have conversations with herself, since these provide the needed humor and a contrast with other parts of the book. As she has been doing lately, Hamilton presents new creatures in this installment, introducing us to fairies, which are creatures that use glamor to cloud the minds of others and control their actions. If you have not done so yet, it is time to jump into this series!
Dark, sexy fun!! - Rated
This was the first Anita Blake novel I picked up. Thanks to this book I'm now hooked on the Anita Blake series. Absolutely brilliant, I haven't read such a good fantasy/horror book in a long time. However, the dark side was that it dragged a little but somehow LKH manages to keep the reader (me!) acting like an addict i.e. scrounging for more. I was incredibly happy that LKH wrote this book as I've been searching for such a complete series for ages, with a non-perfect hero/heroine, lust, sexual undercurrents and kick-ass moves. However,I admit I had to get used to a lot:
1. Anita resembles in stature, Buffy the vampire slayer. I mean I've always wanted a tall slayer
2. That Anita has ugly scars that don't really seem to bother her. I kinda admire her for that, I mean she is the only slayer that I've come across that doesn't care for what she looks like.
3. Anita can't really do kick ass moves without her gun. She gets chucked across a room by a kid-vamp so Lord knows how she became dubbed 'The Executioner' and even survived in that world. It seemed to me she's had a couple of lucky escapes
4. I really liked fact that LKH explored issues which some writers fear to go near or don't have the expertise to express in words. I'm talking about paedophiles, family beliefs and attitudes to teenage kids and underage sex or fatal seduction. This is one of the reasons that kept me reading probably, I love it when a writer is bold, because it makes me feel enthusiastic in a way.
5. One of the biggest shocks is that Anita doesn't do sex before marriage. What a shocker! But I'm guessing hormones will kick in sooner or later especially with 2 delicious hunks circling her
6. Finally the men! God they are to die for. Jean-Claude is probably my dream man and everything I wanted Angel (from Buffy) to be. He has secrets , is a vamp but strangely one of the few who actually seem human at the same time. Maybe it's because of the simple act of him LOVING Anita rather than lusting for her. Richard, poor guy. I feel so sorry for him, I mean Anita he realizes starting to fall for J-C and he can't do anything about it, coz she can't dump him in case ends up like dog meat. Larry is just so adorable definitely one of my fav characters, he's so vulnerable , immature but he grows up incredibly quick I guess that's what Anita's world does to you. It's an almost happy ending coz he becomes independent from Anita in the end. Which can't be said about Jason. He is honestly the most complex characters I've ever come across even more than J-C . He's so intriguing, kinda of a twisted masterpiece. I hope to see more of him in the future.
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