Was living vampire an oxymoron? I wasn't sure anymore. LC/110

 
 

Guilty Pleasures 1993-Welcome to an alternate Earth, where monsters and myths- living and undead-co-exist with humans though not always peacefully. Now visit St. Louis, MO in the Anitaverse...and meet Anita Blake, animator, necromancer and vampire hunter extraordinaire. Most people don't even bat an eye at vampires since they've been given equal rights by the Supreme Court two years earlier in the Addison vs Clark case. Vampirism was legal in the good ole USA. But Anita knows better than to confuse 'equal' with 'same'- she's seen vampire's victims. . . . and been one. Now she's their worst nightmare- or one of them for she is "The Executioner". When a serial killer starts murdering vampires, however, the most powerful vampire in town wants Anita to find the killer. Or else.
  Note:Guilty Pleasures is the name of a vamp strip club owned/run by Jean-Claude located "the district" or Riverfront aka 'Blood Square' area. It is one of several such lucrative and lust satisfying establishments owned by J-C, Inc.
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters: Anita Blake, Jean-Claude
Reoccurring Major Characters: Edward aka 'Death', , Malcolm- Master of The Church of Eternal Life, Rafael- The Rat King,, Rudolf 'Dolph' Storr-RPIT, Zebrowski-RPIT
Reoccurring Characters: Willie McCoy, Robert, Catherine, Bert, Louis Fane, Veronica 'Ronnie' Sims- PI
Others: Phillip, Nikolaos, Aubrey, Valentine
  "I almost had you, my little animator". I glanced at his face and quickly down."Almost doesn't count, you blood-sucking bastard".
"I am the new Master of the City," he said."And you put me upon the throne."
I am the Executioner, and I don't date vampires. I kill them.
 
  The Laughing Corpse 1994- Anita Blake, animator extraordinaire- the dead are her specialty so she can raise the dead as zombies (as well as being a Necromancer which gives her power over the undead), receives her greatest challenge yet- a million dollars to revive a 300-year old zombie. She turns the offer down, knowing that human sacrifice will be necessary to do the job. However, dead bodies start showing up, and Anita soon realizes that a zombie is the murderer. Will she triumph against the zombie and the voodoo priestess who controls it?
  Note: The Laughing Corpse is a live- in all senses of the word- audience stand-up comedy club for undead performers. Of course, it is another of JC's multi-faceted entrepreneurial holdings.
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters:
Reoccurring Characters:Irving Griswold, John Burke
Others: Harold Gaynor, Manny Rodriguez, Dominga Salvador, Luther
 

His voice was like fur, rich, soft, vaguely obscene, as if just talking to him was something dirty. Maybe it was.
"And stop calling me ma fucking petite." He smiled at that.
 
  Circus of the Damned 1995 Anita is an expert on creatures of the night. She has dined with shapeshifters, danced with werewolves, and been wooed, but not won, by Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of the city. Of course, Jean-Claude has eternity to wear her down, right? Now there's a new vampire in town named Alejandro and he wants Anita for his servant- at the cost of JC's life. His attempts to win her lead to a war of the undead and an encounter with a very handsome, very human man in JC's service who has his own agenda- which now includes Anita!
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters: Richard Alaric Zeeman- Alpha Werewolf
Reoccurring Characters:Stephen, Larry Kirkland
Others: Alejandro, Mr. Oliver, Yasmeen
 

"Jesus, are all vampies over two hundred perverts?" "I am over two hundred," Jean-Claude said. "I rest my case".
His eyes were brown and very human. That was nice to see.
"Who's that with you?" Stephen asked. "Death," I said. Edward bowed.
Was he a shapeshifter?I didn't think so. If he was, he hid it better than anybody I'd ever been around.
Would Jean-Claude deliberately try to ruin a potential relationship between Richard and me? Yep.
"So you're a werewolf."
 
  The Lunatic Cafe 1995 The local pack of werewolves comes to preternatural expert Anita Baker for help after a number of their pack mysteriously come up missing. She's the logical choice- she is a preternatural expert and she just happens to be dating the much too handsome and powerful leader of their pack. Anita has survived a lot, from jealous vampires to killer zombies, but this love thing may kill her yet. Especially when she's blackmailed into dating both of her preternatural studmuffin suitors on an equal basis- what's a girl to do?
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters: Jason
Reoccurring Characters: Rania Wallis, Marcus
Others:
   
 
  Bloody Bones 1996 Apparently monsters never heard the saying "Kiss me I'm Irish" because on this St. Patrick's day three dead teenagers are slaughtered in a way no one had ever seen before, and a girl is found drained of blood in her bed. It's obvious that something is very wrong in and around Branson, Missouri. And Anita Blake a tough and savvy necromancer who makes things go bump in the night for nefarious preternatural beings is right in the middle of it all. This time she's called down to Branson to raise a whole graveyard of the dead to settle the disputed ownership of a valuable plot of land. But it soon becomes clear that there's a lot more going on than the obvious when she soon finds herself once again caught up in a vampire power-play. Will Master of the City Jean-Claude, her would-be lover, be strong enough to protect her from someone he once served? And are there really fairies in the gardens of MO- or at least in the ancient graveyards?
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters:
Reoccurring Characters:The Great Council (Vampire), rotting vampires
Other: Magnus Bouvier, Dorcus Bouvier, Serephina, Xavier , Janos
 

"Sex between supernatural beings is always amazing, Anita."
"You are an irritating son of a bitch." "Ah, ma petite, how can I resist you when you whisper such sweet endearments to me?"
"Are you familiar with the term 'whipping boy'?" Janos asked.
Somehow, Jean-Claude has crossed that line that a handful of other vampires have crossed. I don't think of him as a monster any more.
 
 

The Killing Dance 1997 Anita Blake is a top-notch vampire killer. But now that someone's put a half-million dollar price tag on her head, she's on the run trying to save her own life. With a price on her head and professional killers on her trail, Anita Blake, preternatural expert and licensed vampire killer, turns to the men in her life for help. Which in her case, means an alpha werewolf and a master vampire. She needs as much protection as possible, human or otherwise. But Anita is beginning to wonder if two monsters are better than one.
When things unexpectedly all seem to revolve around a certain sexy lycanthrope she's in love with, events occur that will compromise everything one man holds dear while fulfilling the other's greatest wish.
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters:
Reoccurring Characters:
Others:
   
 
  Burnt Offerings 1998 Anita finds herself helping her former foes- the wereleopards of St. Louis while playing a power game within the structure of the werewolf pack. Then when someone starts setting fires that are killing vampires, Anita realizes that something even worse than your average pyrokenetic might be lurking out there in the night.
"You can't trust anyone who sleeps with monsters". That's what she had always believed right up until she started sharing a bed with the Master Vampire of the city. So when an arsonist began to target vampire victims- Jean-Claude's "people" and summoned all the city's lycanthropes to heel, the creatures of the night turned to their former nemesis for help. Now only "The Executioner" could save them from the inferno, but can she save the undead from their own nightmares?
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters:Asher, Nathaniel
Reoccurring Characters:"The Lukoi" & "The Pard", Zane
Others: Padme- Master of Beasts,Fernando, The Traveler, Balthasar, Warrick, Yvette
 
 "It's not so bad being furry, Anita. There are worse things...like being the walking dead."
"You are a pain in the ass." I said. "And so many other places," he said. I didn't think I could blush anymore. I was wrong.
"The same vamp made you both, right?" I asked. "Where'd she go? Unnatually-Beautiful-Studs-R-Us?"
"Bravado and insults are two of my best things."
"Live together? You want a house for three with Jean-Claude down in the basement and me chained in the yard?"
"Richard," I whispered "We're all creatures of light and darkness. Embrassing your darkness won't kill the light. Goodness is stronger than that."
" Jesus, Anita, you are screwed".
 
  Blue Moon 1998 When her former fiancee- alpha werewolf & Ulfric of the St. Louis Thronnos Rokke pack, is thrown in jail for rape, Anita knows he is innocent. Richard may kill, but his rhode Island sized morals would never condone rape. If the conjured up assault charges can be shown to be true, she may his last chance for justice.One catch- Richard doesn't want anyone to know he's a werewolf so she only has a short time before the next full moon.
"Richard was an alpha werewolf. It was his only serious flaw. We'd broken up after I'd seen him eat somebody." Still, you never forget your ex-fiancé- even it the official engagement lasted only 24 hours. And when Richard calls Anita at three in the morning, she knows it won't be good news. It seems Richard had gotten himself thrown in jail on a rape charge. But Anita knows that though he is a monster, Richard's no rapist. And it's up to her to prove his innocence--before the blue moon creates even bigger problems for Richard...
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters:
Reoccurring Characters:
Others:
   
 
  Obsidian Butterfly Called to New Mexico by an old friend- and she uses that term cautiously, Anita gets involved in a strange serial murder investigation, complete with sexually disfigured, flayed bodies. And she thought seeing Teddy Forester as a good ole boy and father figure was beyond weird...
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters:
Reoccurring Characters
Others: Olaf
   
 
  Narcissus in Chains 2002 Anita is torn between her two lovers- Richard and Jean-Claude and two halves of herself, as she hunts a shape-shifter who has united a group of renegade half-human hyenas. Unexpectedly her number of lovers becomes three as a suppressed part of her recognizes its preternatural predestined mate in a newcomer to St. Louis.
  Introduces:
Main Series Characters: Micah Callahan
Reoccurring Characters
   
 
  Cerulean Sins 2003 Just when Anita Blake—necromancer, raiser of the dead, marked human servant of The Master of The City, licensed vampire executioner and hopeless lover of stuffed penguins—is finally figuring out all the men in her life…someone new and very uninvited comes to town.
Anita’s day begins like any other—a customer wants her to raise a long-deceased ancestor. Perhaps it’s the gun the customer is wearing…or his evasive attitude…something is not right and Anita listens to her instincts. While she digs into her client’s story, the day turns decidedly worse. Musette has come to town. She’s the dreaded second-in-command to Belle Morte, the vampire who created Anita’s lover Jean-Claude, and she’s brought her entire entourage with her for a state visit. She was expected, and preparations were being made, but she has arrived a month early. And when a vampire who was centuries old before the Roman Empire existed does the unexpected…there will be blood to pay.
Before the visit ends, alliances change, and hearts are broken, mended and broken again. Mix in werewolves—Richard the Ulfric returns—wereleopards, wererats, werehyenas and vampires- including some who are impossibly also werewolves…. And if that’s not enough to keep the lights on all night, Anita meets the Mother of All Darkness…the very first vampire. Then there is the serial killer werewolf and the government plot to kidnap Anita just as an added hors d'oeuvre. Merde!
   Introduces:
Other: Musette
 
 

Incubus Dreams 2004 No one knows the dark desires of the inhuman soul better than Anita Blake, vampire hunter. Now her life is more complicated than ever, caught as she is between her obligations to the normal living—and the undead and lunarlly challenged.On the personal side, everything escalates out of control between her, Damien and Nathaniel while a rival Master vampire sends a vampire spy to infultrate Jean-Claude's realm. To bolster his power the Tri must consolidate their power which after much bickering, soul-searching, and luscious sex reveals a glimpse of what they could be.
As consultant to the RPIT-Regional Preternatural Crime Investigation Unit- Anita is called in on a case involving a serial killer who preys on strippers. Problem is, the perp appears to be a vampire. Anita is sure that none of the local vamps are responsible, but her judgment may be clouded by a conflict of interest-she is, after all, the consort of Jean-Claude, St. Louis’s intoxicating Master Vampire—something that both her human friends and her ex, the alpha werewolf Richard, are quick to point out. Surrounded by suspicion, overwhelmed by her attempts to control the primal lusts that continue to wrack her as a result of the ardeur and fueled by her passionate contacts with vampire, werewolf and the shapeshifter Micah, Anita does something shockingly out of character: she calls for help.

  Note: Incubus Dreams is also a vamp strip club but despite him being the only real incubus in the series- this club is not owned by Jean-Claude.
  Introduces:
Reoccurring Characters:Primo, Truth &
Others: Moreven- The Dragon( by reference only),
 
  Micah's Story- 2006 A novella about Micah before he entered Anita's world. Filling in for a colleague, Anita travels to Philadelphia to reanimate a deceased federal witness, accompanied by Micah, her wereleopard lover. The jaunt serves as a chance for them to share some rare one-on-one time—without any of her five other lovers around—which Anita fears is not necessarily a good thing. Even worse, since her magic energy has grown unexpectedly strong, she suspects this won't be your run-of-th e-mill reincarnation.
"There are lots of reasons to raise the dead-some private, some public. In this case, the feds have a witness who died before he could speak on the record. They want him raised so his testimony can be taken. So here I am, on a plane to Philadelphia, flying off to do my job. But I'm not alone. Micah is with me. Micah, head of the St. Louis wereleopard pard. King to my Queen. The only one of my lovers who can stir my blood with just a glance from his chartreuse cat's eyes. I was happy to have him at my side. Until he mentioned that this will be our first time alone together. No Master Vampire. No Alpha Werewolf. Just me and Micah. And all my fears and doubts..."
  Main Characters: Anita & Micah
 
   
  Danse Macabre -French="gruesome dance" The uniquely complicated life of Anita Blake, the St. Louis–based necromancer, gets even more complicated when Anita discovers she may be pregnant in the 14th novel in bestseller Hamilton's vampire hunter series (Micah, etc.). Her sexual magic powers require multiple lovers, so there are six potential fathers. One possible dad, werewolf Richard, has trouble understanding that, baby or not, Anita's still a federal marshal who raises the dead and executes vampires. In addition, terrifying, life-threatening obstetrical challenges are involved, since the maybe-mommy has to deal with vampirism and several strains of lycanthropy coursing through her veins. That Anita has no detecting to do may disappoint some fans, but playing hostess to a gathering of North American vampire Masters of the City, ostensibly in town for a performance by a vampiric ballet troupe, keeps her plenty busy. When the vampire ballet takes the stage toward the end, several new plot elements emerge.
Anita is in the market for a new pomme de sang to feed the otherworldly passion known as the ardeur that she and her lovers are subject to, but she has a more pressing problem on her hands when she discovers she might be pregnant. Anita can't imagine how a baby would fit in with her vampiric lifestyle, nor does she know which of her lovers is the father, though she suspects either possessive werewolf Richard or sensual wereleopard Nathaniel. To make matters worse, vampire masters are converging on the city for a massive meeting, and Anita is wary of her role in the gathering.
 
   
  The Harlequin: An Anita Blake, Vampire Slayer Novel (Hardcover) June 5 07
   
 
 
 
Strange Candy
Fans will best appreciate the 14 often darkly humorous fictions in bestseller Hamilton's first story collection, which includes several unpublished tales. Stories like "Selling Houses," in which a determined real estate agent faces up to the difficulties of selling a house where a gruesome mass murder has taken place, and "Here Be Dragons," a horrific account of a psychic child whose dreams can kill, show talent but need polish. Anita Blake aficionados, though, will relish the opener, "Those Who Seek Forgiveness," with its early version of a somewhat naïve vampire hunter. Stories set in the sword-and-sorcery world of Hamilton's first novel, Nightseer—"A Token for Celandine," "Winterkill," "The Curse-maker" and "Stealing Souls"—reveal that she has always had a talent for portraying strong female characters
   Bite-2005 "The Girl who Was Infatuated With Death" This is a previously unreleased short story set between Blue Moon and Obsidian Butterfly. It revolves around Anita having a bad night as an animator replete with Malcolm being an undead PIA but Jean-Claude and a can of ready-made chocolate icing manage to make it all a distant memory. That would work for me. Every story in this anthology is excellent.
  Cravings-2004 "Blood upon my lips". This is the beginning of Incubus Dreams set as a short story. The other stories in this collection range from average to good. Bite is better.
 

Scifi Book Club Combos:
Club Vampyre-Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned
The Midnight Cafe-The Lunatic Cafe, Bloody Bones, The Killing Dance
Black Moon Inn-Burnt Offerings, Blue Moon
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The above book descriptions are slightly altered versions of synopsis offered by booksellers or book clubs on the web. They describe it much better than I can.