Vicious Vampyres: Guilty Pleasures

Gah!  I loaned a book to somebody and now I don't have it.  Had to buy a new copy.  I HATE that.
Anyways, wanted to introduce here to the blog the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series from one of my favorite authors, Laurell K. Hamilton.

I'll admit I was re-reading the series starting with the second book, but for you, dear readers, I went back to the basics.  While the first image below is the Jove edition I first had,  there is a new edition from Jove with the second over art.  (Feel like the first one was better).




Guilty Pleasures is the first book of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series and introduces us to the world of Anita.  She is a full time animator, professionally working to raise zombies for legal and personal purposes of her clients.  When her friend, the newly created vampire, Willie McCoy comes to her office to ask her to help with a series of vampire murders, she gets sucked into the politics of the supernatural world.  This book is set  in St. Louis, MO.


The general conceit is that Vampires have come out of the coffin as it were about 3 years prior to the time in Guilty Pleasures.  The US is the only country to recognize them as citizens, and vampires were granted rights in a Supreme Court case.  Former bounty hunters who were tasked to take out "vermin" like vampires, weres, and other supes now are often attached to the police as legal vampire executioners.  In fact, Anita, a small 26 year old woman, is one of the best -- vampires have given her the moniker "Executioner".

In this book, she is seduced by the vampires in St. Louis to investigate the murders happening there, by holding hostage one of her friends.  Through her investigation she meets the local rat were community and find out that there is a traitor in the midst.  She also first meets both of her future lovers, Richard, the werewolf and Jean-Claude, a vampire in the local kiss.

The book's climax is Anita's battle to keep herself alive in spite of the death promised by the local Master of the City, Nikolas.

I love the pacing of the book and the central themes that Laurell K. Hamilton explores -- what makes a monster?  Anita begins questioning her role as a vampire executioner and discovers hard truths about what she herself is in the supernatural community.
When I speak about vampire books, this series is always my number one recommendation, not only for the craft of writing but taking a deeper look into the world of the supernatural in a human run world, discovering what makes them different and how they are no different than their prey.

Buy, children!  Buy.  Let me know what you think of this fantastic (and now quite long) series.

XX
Red Haired Witch




Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
Laurell K. Hamilton
September 24, 2002
ISBN: 051513449X
Jove