**First and foremost**

The Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Series is by Laurell K. Hamilton, and is not my own work. It is a fairly well-known series, by a well-know author. I am in no way trying to portray the below mentioned books as my own work. This is just my views on Ms. Hamilton’s works of art.

There are several aspects of this blog, taken from many sources (all will cited), including my own head. This blog will also have a guest writer, whom I shall call “Sensual Death“. If Asher were ‘real’, Sensual Death would be him. Sensual Death will have his own chapter, as will any other reader who wishes to be a guest on my blog.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the series, to see who Asher is, look below.

I have outlined all 16 books that are currently in the series, as well as mythology and background, history, and characters. Also, there are excerpts from the books, where available. Again, all sources will be cited, both after the excerpts and in a Bibliography, which will be its own chapter.

I apologize in advance, this chapter is merely referencing, and is unimaginably long. There will be more chapters in the days that follow.

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Blake:_Vampire_Hunter

Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter is a series of erotic fantasy novels by Laurell K. Hamilton, narrated by the title character, Anita Blake.  Anita lives in a fictional Saint Louis much like our own, save that, not only are things like vampires and shapeshifters real, but everyone knows that they’re real and they are considered citizens of America, much like normal humans. The novels follow Anita’s ongoing conflicts with the supernatural as she attempts to solve a variety of supernatural mysteries, come to terms with her own abilities, and navigate an increasingly complex series of romantic and political relationships.

Novel List

1. Guilty Pleasures (1993) ISBN 0-515-13449-X
2. The Laughing Corpse (1994) ISBN 0-425-19200-8
3. Circus of the Damned (1995) ISBN 0-515-13448-1
4. The Lunatic Cafe (1996) ISBN 0-425-20137-6
5. Bloody Bones (1996) ISBN 0-425-20567-3
6. The Killing Dance (1997) ISBN 0-425-20906-7
7. Burnt Offerings (1998) ISBN 0-515-13447-3
8. Blue Moon (1998) ISBN 0-515-13445-7
9. Obsidian Butterfly (2000) ISBN 0-515-13450-3
10. Narcissus in Chains (2001) ISBN 5-558-61270-3
11. Cerulean Sins (2003) ISBN 0-515-13681-6
12. Incubus Dreams (2004) ISBN 0-515-13449-X
13. Micah (February 2006) ISBN 0-515-14087-2
14. Danse Macabre (June 2006) ISBN 0-425-20797-8
15. The Harlequin (2007) ISBN 978-0-425-21724-5
16. Blood Noir (2008) ISBN 978-0-425-22219-5

Series overview

The initial novels were initially classified as crime fiction, alternate history (a subset of science fiction), fantasy, or horror. The series currently could be classified as erotica.

Progressive worldbuilding

In the early books, Anita considers vampires untrustable monsters. She fears and pities lycanthropes. Over time she meets and befriends vampires and lycanthropes. In book 1 she quips, “I don’t date vampires. I kill them.” By book 4 she has dated one.

Anita’s increasing trust of the “monsters” parallels her learning more about their respective cultures and becoming more involved in their communities and politics. In the most recent books Anita has also acquired some lycanthrope and vampire abilities (see Anita Blake). As Hamilton has stated, “Anita is my eyes on her world, my camera.” ^[1]Throwing Anita deeper into magic, vampire, and lycanthrope experiences lets the reader explore these cultures vicariously.

For more information on Anita’s world, see Mythology of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter.

Anita’s relationships

Anita Blake is celibate during the first 5 novels. She has her first “in-book” date in book 3 (Circus of the Damned). Book 6 (The Killing Dance) has her first sexual encounter since the beginning of the series. In-book sex returns in book 8 (Blue Moon).

Beginning in book 10 (Narcissus in Chains), the sexual content increased significantly. Sadomasochism, dominance and submission, multiple concurrent relationships, and lycanthropic sexual fantasies are all explored. Previous sex scenes were explicit but rare. Due to the increased sexual and relationship content, the later books are sometimes shelved in romance.

For more information on Anita’s history through the series, see Anita Blake.

Comic books

Issue 1 cover.

A monthly comic-book adaptation of the series began in October of 2006. The comic is faithfully adapted by Stacie M. Ritchie, illustrated by Brett Booth, and published by Dabel Brothers Productions in a partnership with Marvel Comics.

On October 20, 2006, Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Guilty Pleasures#1 was released under Marvel’s collaboration with the Dabel Brothers. The issue sold out on the release date. Marvel and Dabel Brothers released a second printing with a limited edition print on November 15, 2006. A third printing with a new variant cover was released on February 21, 2007.^[2]

Until October 2007 (Issue #6), the book was published monthly (along with a Sourcebook, which spoiled the story’s ending), until Marvel acquired Dabel’s licenses and the two partners split amicably. When the series returned for the final half of the adaptation in March 2008, Ron Lim replaced Booth as of the seventh issue and Jess Ruffner replaced Ritchie.

First Death

As a supplement to the series, during its hiatus, First Death, an original “prequel” adventure of Anita’s adventures has been published as a comic book. Written by Hamilton and adapted by Johnathon Green, and penciled by Wellington Alves, the tale is two issues long and takes place early in Anita’s career, introducing Jean-Claude, Edward and Zerbrowski as characters. This story represents the back story of Anita’s first encounter with Valentine and Edward. A variant cover for issue #2 has Anita and the Marvel Zombies.

See also

• Anita Blake
• Mythology of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Human characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Undead characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Lycanthrope characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Other characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter

References

1. ^ From an interview.
2. ^ Horror Comic Book News - Comic Monsters

Novels

1. Guilty Pleasures

Plot introduction

Guilty Pleasures introduces the character of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter and her world, an alternate history where magic, vampires, werewolves and other supernatural elements are known to exist. Blake, a zombie animator and licensed vampire executioner, is forced to investigate a series of vampire murders, and in the process comes into contact with many of the supernatural characters of her home city of Saint Louis. The novel blends elements of supernatural and hard-boiled detective fiction.

Explanation of the title

Within the novel, “Guilty Pleasures” is the name of a vampire strip club operated by Jean-Claude, one of the main characters. Hamilton has continued the pattern of titling the novels after a location within each novel for most of the books in the series.

Plot summary

Anita Blake lives in St. Louis, Missouri, in a world where magic, vampires, werewolves, and the like are “out of the closet” and, in some cases, even legal. Anita is an “animator,” with the ability to raise or inter zombies. Anita also works as a “vampire executioner,” killing vampires (by court order) and advising the police on supernatural crimes. This first book takes place in July when Anita is 24.

In Guilty Pleasures, Anita is blackmailed by Nikolaos, the vampire master of the city, into investigating a series of vampire murders. During the course of this investigation, Anita begins her relationship with Jean-Claude, another master vampire, and receives two of the four marks necessary to make her Jean-Claude’s “human servant.” Ultimately, Anita identifies the murderer, but by that point has sufficiently antagonized Nikolaos and her underlings that she is forced to confront them. Ultimately, with help from Jean-Claude and Edward, a human associate who specializes in assassinating supernatural targets, Anita kills Nikolaos and many of her followers, making Jean-Claude master of the city.

Characters in Guilty Pleasures

Major characters

Guilty Pleasures introduces the following characters.

• Anita Blake: Anita is a hard-boiled detective — contrary, sarcastic, and has a protective streak — with the ability to raise the dead. While she is a respected vampire hunter, Anita still has a healthy fear of their superior strength, speed, and metaphysical abilities. She strongly believes that vampires are irredeemable monsters, which will change as the series progresses.
• Nikolaos: The primary villain of the novel, Nikolaos is a very old, very powerful, and very threatening vampire.
• Jean-Claude: The novel also introduces Jean-Claude, and offers hints of some of his defining qualities, particularly his manipulative and strategic personality, his seductive charm, and his attraction to Anita.
• Edward: Anita’s human associate who specializes in assassinating supernatural targets.

Other recurring characters

• Guilty Pleasures introduced a number of recurring characters including Anita’s civilian boss, Bert, best friend Ronnie coworkers Jamison, police officers Dolph and Zerbrowski, and recurring characters Malcolm, Willie McCoy, Dead Dave, and Luther.

Non recurring characters

• Burchard

Nikolaos’s human servant, Burchard was centuries old. He was bald, skilled with weapons, and carried himself like a soldier. Anita killed Burchard in Guilty Pleasures.

• Phillip

A former pomme de sang (literally: “apple of blood”; a person who regularly donates blood to a specific master vampire) to Jean-Claude. Phillip was a “vampire junkie” and a stripper at Guilty Pleasures, and was the first in a long line of beautiful but wounded strippers who have looked to Anita for healing and protection. He was killed by Valentine and Aubrey, raised as a zombie, and then re-interred by Anita, all in Guilty Pleasures.

• Winter

Built like a circus strongman, Winter was a human employee of Nikolaos. He nearly killed Anita, but Anita killed him in Guilty Pleasures.

Death toll

• The death toll in Guilty Pleasures includes murder victims Theresa and Phillip and a long list of victims of Anita and Edward - Nikolaos, Aubrey, Valentine, Zachary, Burchard, Winter, and an unnamed vampire.

Major themes

Guilty Pleasures combines elements of supernatural and detective fiction to create a formula that lasts through the next several novels. The novel also introduces a number of themes that develop throughout the series.

• Anita’s uncomfortable relationship with the supernatural and with her own powers is at its high point in this book. Through the series, Anita becomes progressively more comfortable with her abilities, her relationship with the vampires of Saint Louis, and her sexuality.

Adaptations

The Anita Blake series is being adapted into a monthly comic book by Dabel Brothers Productions and Marvel Comics. The first issue, adapting Guilty Pleasures, was released on October 20, 2006.

Release details

2002 US hardback cover	Original UK cover	2000 Russian cover	2003 Hungarian cover
2003 Greek cover	2005 Spanish cover

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilty_Pleasures_%28novel%29

2. The Laughing Corpse

Plot introduction

The Laughing Corpse continues the adventures of Anita Blake, as she attempts to solve a particularly grisly set of murders, while simultaneously avoiding two potential threats to her life from people interested in using her talents as a zombie animator. Meanwhile, Anita continues to attempt to come to grips with her powers and her relationship with Jean-Claude, the vampire master of St. Louis and Anita’s would be lover/master. As with its predecessor, Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse blends elements of supernatural and detective fiction, specifically police procedural and hard-boiled fiction in this novel.

Explanation of the title

Within the novel, “The Laughing Corpse” is the name of a vampire comedy club operated by Jean-Claude, one of the main characters. Hamilton employed the practice of titling the novels after a location within each novel for most of the books in the series.

Plot summary

The Laughing Corpse takes place in August, a month after Guilty Pleasures and begins with Anita and her manager, Bert Vaughn, visiting local millionaire Harold Gaynor to discuss a potential job. Harold explains that he wishes to animate and question a 300 year old corpse, and that he will pay millions of dollars for this job, as well as supplying the “white goat” necessary to accomplish the task. Although Bert hates the idea of giving up so lucrative a job, when Anita explains that the “white goat” is a euphemism for the human sacrifice necessary to animate a corpse that old, Bert refuses the offer.

While trying on bridesmaid’s outfits for her friend Catherine’s wedding, Anita receives a call from Dolph, the head of the area’s supernatural crimes unit. She visits the murder scene, and sees the remnants of a family, which she deduces was torn apart by an undead creature of some sort, possibly a flesh-eating zombie. One of the children is missing and possibly alive. In Anita’s opinion, there are only two local people powerful enough to raise and command a flesh-eating zombie - herself and vaundun priestess Dominga Salvador. A third candidate, Peter Burke, recently died. Anita agrees to set up a meeting with Salvador to sound her out on the crime.

Anita’s mentor, Manny Rodriguez, sets up a meeting with Salvador. Salvador is a very evil and powerful vaundun priestess, and reveals that Manny was once a vaundun priest and Salvador’s lover, and that Manny has committed human sacrifices. In return for Salvador’s promise to investigate who is behind the murders, Anita agrees to view a demonstration of Salvador’s technique for capturing the souls of the dead and installing them in zombies, preventing the zombies from degrading and allowing further punishment of the dead. Salvador proposes that Anita become her partner, and that they create en-souled zombies for profit. Anita refuses and they exchange threats, after which Anita is effectively chased out of Salvador’s home by an unseen creature.

After refusing an offer from one of Gaynor’s bodyguards to perform the animation on her own, Anita attends Peter Burke’s funeral. At the funeral, she meet’s Peter’s brother, John Burke. John is a well known vaundun priest and vampire executioner from New Orleans, and Anita considers him as a possible suspect in the zombie murders.

Later that day, Anita meets one of her sources, newspaper reporter and werewolf Irving Griswold, at “Dead Dave’s.” Griswold gives her information on Gaynor, including the name of one of Gaynor’s former girlfriends, Wheelchair Wanda. Griswold tries to get Anita to reveal either her information about Gaynor or the identity of the new Master of the City, but she refuses. Jean-Claude arrives, and attempts to convince Anita to accept her position as his human servant. She refuses, but agrees to meet him the next night at the “Laughing Corpse,” a vampire-themed comedy club. Irving figures out that Jean-Claude is Master of the City, and Jean-Claude agrees to an interview.

That evening, Anita visits the cemetery where the corpse of the last member of the murdered family was found. Using her powers, she scans the graves, and finds one empty and recently disturbed grave. Although the gravestone has been smashed, Anita finds a charm bracelet and a piece of the stone, and takes them to an associate, Evans.

Evans, a touch clairvoyant, initially refuses to read the items. Ultimately, Anita convinces him, and he tells her that a woman wearing the charm bracelet was sacrificed to raise a zombie, then throws her out of his trailer.

That night, Anita wakes to find two zombies in her apartment, apparently sent by Dominga Salvador. She is able to fight off the zombies, but she and her apartment are both damaged. The next day, the threats on her life continue, as two thugs attempt to kidnap Anita and her friend, investigator Ronnie Sims. They question the thugs and deduce that they are working for Gaynor.

Later that evening, Anita visits the Laughing Corpse, and speaks to its new manager, former small-time hood and now small-time vampire Willie McCoy. After watching the show, she meets with Jean-Claude, who explains that he needs her to appear as a willing servant in order to maintain his image and control over the city’s vampires. She refuses again, but asks Jean-Claude to accompany her to Saint Louis’s red light district as her bodyguard, so that she can find and interview Wheelchair Wanda. Jean-Claude agrees, and ends up accidentally seducing one of the prostitutes. He explains that being near Anita boosts his powers more than he expected.

Wanda initially refuses to talk, but Jean-Claude intimidates her into telling them that Gaynor, wheelchair-bound himself, prefers dating handicapped women. Wanda dated Gaynor until he met Cicely, a beautiful but sadistic deaf woman. Wanda is also able to tell Anita that Gaynor is obsessed with the idea of finding a historic “family treasure” and thus revenging himself on a family that he believes has abandoned him.

The next morning, Dolph summons Anita to another zombie murder scene, where Anita engages in a game of one-ups-manship with another police officer, Merlioni, that ends with them playing catch with portions of the body to see who has a stronger stomach. Because the crime took all night and because zombies prefer to avoid daylight, Anita believes that the zombie is likely to be hiding in the neighborhood. Dolph begins a search of the neighborhood.

Dolph also authorizes Anita to show John Burke his brother Peter’s effects, in an effort to question Burke further about his possible involvement in the murders. Burke and Anita find a magical gris-grisin Peter’s possessions, as well as a charm from the charm bracelet Anita found at the mystery grave-site. Burke explains that the gris-gris was made by a powerful vaundun practitioner, that it involved a human sacrifice, and that it contained a portion of the maker’s own power and would increase the power of any animator who possessed it.

Anita, John Burke, and the police confront Dominga Salvador with the gris-gris, which crawls towards her of its own power. Salvador refuses to admit that the charm is hers until Burke points out that if she does not, it will become his property because it was found in his brother’s effects, and that he can use it to take a portion of her power for himself. At that point, she admits that the charm is hers, but absorbs it bodily without warning or ritual, which frightens Burke, who did not believe that it was possible. Salvador’s grandson, Antonio, then confesses his role to the police, apparently because he was supposed to have taken the charm from Burke after his death and fears Salvador’s revenge for failing in his mission. On the strength of the confession and a videotape of the events relating to the charm, the police arrest Salvador.

Anita returns to the neighborhood of the last killing, where the police have been unable to find the zombie. As darkness begins to fall, Anita realizes that the zombie, which will not grow sore or tired, might be hiding on one of the various garbage cans out on the street. She and the police begin opening cans, and the zombie escapes, wounding some of the police and confronting Anita after she gives chase. The zombie explains that it was an animator in life, and that it did not recover its memories until eating human flesh. It asks Anita to put it back in its grave, but Anita and the police destroy it instead.

After medical treatment, Anita returns home, where she is kidnapped by Gaynor’s bodyguards. When she wakes up, she and Wanda are both prisoners at Gaynor’s home, guarded by Gaynor’s bodyguards Bruno and Tommy, Salvador’s bodyguard herself, and a zombie chimera created by Salvador. Gaynor and Salvador (who has been granted bail by a judge under her influence) tell Anita that they intend to force her to raise another relative of Gaynor’s, and that Wanda will be the sacrifice. When Anita refuses to assist willingly, Salvador leaves her zombie chimera to guard Anita and Wanda and begins a spell to compel Anita to obey her orders.

Anita is able to kill Tommy and Cecily and to use her powers over the dead to order the chimera to retreat. She and Wanda attempt to escape, but on their way out, the compulsion spell begins, and Anita is forced to return to the cemetery near Gaynor’s home. Anita figures out that the spell doesn’t force her to do anything other than follow Salvador’s specific commands, and therefore leaves Wanda, depriving Salvador of their intended sacrifice. Salvador sends her bodyguard Enzo to get Wanda, and forces Anita to begin the ritual that will raise Gaynor’s ancestor.

Anita tells Gaynor and Salvador what she has deduced - that Gaynor wished to raise one of his ancestors to find the treasure, but that Salvador, unwilling to perform a human sacrifice in front of witnesses, instead created a gris-gris that allowed Peter Burke to raise Gaynor’s ancestor. However, because Gaynor’s ancestor was an animator, he rose as an uncontrollable flesh-eating zombie. Burke was killed to keep the secret, but Antonio forgot to retrieve the gris-gris, providing the clue Anita needed to solve the mystery.

Although Salvador is angry that Gaynor didn’t tell her that his ancestor was an animator, she continues with the plan. With Enzo and Bruno holding Wanda ready for the sacrifice, Salvador then commands Anita to “raise the dead.” Anita follows that command literally, taking the offered machete and killing Enzo and Bruno instead of Wanda. The power released by two human deaths, combined with Anita’s own power, allows Anita to raise and control every corpse in the cemetery. She orders the zombies to kill both Salvador and Gaynor, then lays the zombies to rest. Jean-Claude arrives, and explains that, as the undead himself, he felt Anita’s power, but remained at a distance until she interred the zombies, apparently out of prudence in case Anita decided to use the zombies to kill him and free herself of her status as his human servant.

In the epilogue, Anita explains that the “disappearances” of Salvador and Gaynor have never been solved, that she continues to refuse Jean-Claude, has attended Catherine’s wedding, and is considering the extent and implications of the power she now realizes she has.

Characters in The Laughing Corpse

Major characters

• Anita Blake: Anita continues exploring her relationship with Jean-Claude and her own abilities.
• Jean-Claude: Jean-Claude reveals that his decision to bind Anita as his vampire servant has increased his power, but that Anita’s refusal to concede her role as human servant threatens his control over the city’s vampires.
• Dominga Salvador: Salvador functions both as a villain and as a promise or warning of what Anita may become. The most powerful Vaundun priestessin the United States, Dominga Salvador is simultaneously grandmotherly and terrifyingly evil. She was Manny Rodriguez’s former lover and very innovative in developing new and terrifying ways to use her powers. Salvador is initially quite interested in Anita, and attempts to recruit her as a protege and as a partner in a scheme to create and sell en-souled zombie slaves. When Anita refuses, Salvador first tries to have Anita killed, then creates a spell to enslave her. Ultimately, Salvador dies when Anita raises a cemetery full of zombies, who tear Salvador limb from limb.
• Harold Gaynor: The other “villain” of the work, Harold is one of many people who seek to use Anita’s powers for their own ends. A self-made multimillionaire with organized crime connections and the product of a nonmarital relationship, Gaynor is obsessed with revenge on a family that did not admit he was a member, and wants Anita to raise one of his ancestors in order to find the location of a family treasure. He is confined to a wheelchair, and made a practice of dating handicapped women, such as Wheelchair Wanda. Anita ultimately orders him torn apart by zombies.

Other characters

• The Laughing Corpse featured reappearances from Anita’s coworkers, Bert, Ronnie and Jamison, police officers Dolph and Zerbrowski, and recurring characters Willie McCoy, Irving, Dead Dave, and Luther. The novel also introduced recurring characters John Burke, a vaundun priest, vampire executioner, and possible love interest and Charles, another co-worker.

• Non-recurring characters include Wheelchair Wanda, last seen waiting tables in the book’s aftermath, RPIT Officer Maroni, and Antonio, who is presumably either in jail or murdered, depending on whether Salvador had time to take her revenge on him prior to her own death.

• The death toll in The Laughing Corpse includes John Burke’s brother, Peter Burke, various murder victims, and numerous people killed by Anita: Salvador; Gaynor; Gaynor’s girlfriend, Cecily, bodyguards Bruno, Tommy, and Enzo, two unnamed zombies, an unnamed flesh eating zombie animator, and a zombie chimera.

Major themes

The Laughing Corpse combines elements of supernatural and detective fiction to continue a formula that Hamilton used for her first several novels. The novel also continues a number of themes that began in the first novel.

• Anita gradually increases her comfort with Jean-Claude, the supernatural, and her own abilities. Although she is still uncomfortable with all three, the events of The Laughing Corpse lead her to use Jean-Claude for protection and to rely on her own supernatural abilities to a degree that would have been unthinkable for her even as recently as the last novel.
• Anita’s continuing struggle for her own independence is also a major theme of this book. Several people, including Bert, Dolph, Jean-Claude, Salvador, and Gaynor, wish to use Anita’s skills and powers for their own purposes. Anita works with Bert and Dolph, albeit only on her own terms, keeps Jean-Claude at a distance, and kills her remaining two suitors.

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laughing_Corpse_%28novel%29

3. Circus of the Damned

Plot introduction

Circus of the Damned continues the adventures of Anita Blake. Anita simultaneously attempts to solve a series of murders by an unknown vampire pack, fend off the advances of her would be vampire master, Jean-Claude and deal with various people and creatures who wish her to reveal Jean-Claude’s identity and location. As with its predecessors, Circus of the Damned blends elements of supernatural, hard-boiled detective, and police procedural fiction.

Explanation of the title

Within the novel, the “Circus of the Damned” is the name of a supernatural circus that operated by Jean-Claude and serves as one of the main locations within the book. Hamilton employed the practice of titling the novels after a location within each novel for most of the books in the series.

Plot summary

Circus of the Damned takes place in October, two months after The Laughing Corpse and begins with Anita meeting Jeremy Rubens and Karl Inger to discuss a potential job. Rubens explains that he has formed Humans First to eliminate vampires by any means necessary, and asks Anita to reveal the identity and resting place of the Master of the City. Although Anita considers whether turning Jean-Claude over to them would free her from the vampire marks he placed upon her in Guilty Pleasures, she ultimately refuses, at least in part because their plan is not good enough and would result in them getting killed. Rubens reacts badly, but Inger is more thoughtful, and Anita agrees to reconsider their proposal if they are able to develop a more promising plan.

Anita then receives a call from Dolph to assist in a crime scene investigation. Arriving at the scene, she determines that the victim, Carl Rupert, was killed by bites from multiple vampires. Anita informs Dolph that she believes that a single master vampire must be leading a pack of other vampires in order to coordinate the attack, and that because the victim died of bites from multiple different vampires, he will not rise as a vampire himself.

In order to learn whether any rogue master vampires are operating in the city, Anita requests a meeting with Jean-Claude, and is invited to meet him at the Circus of the Damned, a supernatural circus and Jean-Claude’s daytime resting place. Stephen leads her into the circus, past an act where a snake charmer is charming a giant, apparently supernatural, cobra. Arriving at an inner chamber, Anita meets Jean-Claude, together with Yasmeen, a master vampire ally of Jean-Claude’s, and two people reclining naked in bed, Richard Zeeman and Rashida.

Yasmeen confronts Anita, alternately challenging and attempting to seduce her. Jean-Claude explains that Anita’s refusal to concede that she is his human servant is causing him political problems, and tells Anita that if she accepts her role, he will resolve the confrontation with Yasmeen. Of course, Anita refuses. Jealous of Yasmeen’s attention to Anita, Yasmeen’s human servant and lover, Marguerite, challenges Anita to a duel, which Anita wins. Angry over Anita’s defeat of Marguerite, Yasmeen attacks Anita, but Anita continues to refuse to ask for Jean-Claude’s aid. Anita is ultimately saved by her silver cross, which comes into contact with Yasmeen’s bare skin and burns hot enough to burn both Anita and Yasmeen.

The confrontation is then cut short by a crisis in the arena outside. During the confrontation, the giant snake, apparently once worshipped as a god in ancient Egypt, killed the snake charmer and is now out of control. (Although Anita does not explicitly state this, there is a chance that this event was caused by Mr Oliver, who Anita later learns has power over snakes and seeks to replace the Master of the City.) Jean-Claude, Yasmeen, Marguerite, Rashida, Stephen and Richard all rush down to fight the snake. At Jean-Claude’s request, Anita assists, both by increasing Jean-Claude’s powers with her presence and with her gun. With Anita’s help, the snake is killed, although it nearly tears Rashida’s arm off in the process.

Jean-Claude criticizes Richard for not doing all he could to fight the snake, then informs Anita that neither he or Yasmeen are the rogue master vampire responsible for the recent murder and that he does not know of any other master vampires who might be suspects. Jean-Claude admits that although he would normally know if any new master vampires had arrived in his territory, current events are sufficiently chaotic that he might not know in this case. Anita agrees to drive Richard home, together with Stephen, who is nearly unconscious from the strain of transforming to his wolf form and back to human. Anita is attracted to Richard, a handsome and kind junior high school teacher who is inexplicably mixed up with Jean-Claude, and after some initial resistance, agrees to go on a caving date with Richard the next Saturday.

After dropping off Stephen and Richard, Anita arrives at her home and finds Edward waiting for her. Edward has accepted another contract to kill the Master of St. Louis, and wants Anita to tell him the Master’s identity and daytime resting place. (In Guilty Pleasures, Anita found clues that strongly suggested that Malcolm was the client who had hired Edward to kill Nikolaos, the Master at that time. However, in this case, Anita does not find any clues as to whether Humans Against Vampires, Mr Oliver, or someone else is responsible for the contract on Jean-Claude.)

Edward tells Anita that he had followed Anita to The Circus of the Damned and watched the fight against the giant snake. Based on that fight, Edward guesses that either Jean-Claude or Yasmeen is Master of the City. As with Rubens and Inger, Anita considers whether handing Jean-Claude to Edward would free her from her human servant status, but decides to delay, and successfully bluffs Edward into believing that the true Master of the City is someone else. Edward demands that she tell him the Master’s identity and resting place soon or face the consequences.

Edward leaves and Anita goes to sleep, but is visited by a dream of Jean-Claude. Later that day, Anita visits the gym to work out with Ronnie and learns that Carl Rupert, the murder victim, was a member of Humans Against Vampires. Ronnie also reminds Anita that their friend Catherine has scheduled a Halloweenparty for the day Anita had planned to go out with Richard. Ronnie teases Anita about having a date, and Anita calls Richard, who agrees to go with her to the Halloween party and take a rain-check for the caving.

That evening, Dolph calls and asks Anita to inspect another vampire murder. The victim, a woman, has also been killed by a vampire pack. As night falls, Anita and Dolph notice a change come over the woman’s corpse, as she transforms from merely dead into something luminously beautiful. Anita realizes that if the rogue master vampire is powerful enough, its victims might rise after a single bite. If so, the victims, each of whom died while being bitten by an entire pack of vampires, would rise as an animalistic vampire. Anita becomes concerned that the hospital personnel might be unprepared for the previous victim to rise as a vampire and calls the hospital but gets no answer. She then calls Bert, who tells her that new hire Larry Kirkland is covering her animations for the night, and that Rupert had a “dying will” asking to be staked, and that because Anita was unavailable, John Burke has gone to the hospital to perform the staking. Anita and the police rush to the hospital to learn why no one is answering the phone.

Anita and several police officers arrive at the hospital, and find the morgue wing deserted. Apparently, Rupert awakened in an animalistic state, killed the vampire counsellor, tore open the steel morgue door and went on a rampage, killing nurses and guards as he found them. Anita and the police meet John Burke, who was in the hospital hunting Rupert, and continue the hunt together. Rupert surprises them and is able to kill one of the police officers before Anita disables him. After confirming that Rupert is dead, Anita leaves to make sure that Larry Kirkland is able to cover her scheduled animations for the night.

Anita catches up to Larry on his third animation of the night. Although Larry is powerful, he is young and inexperienced, and begins to lose control of the zombie. Anita steps in, feeding the zombie her blood and asserting control over it. After the zombie, Andrew Dougal, signs a will, his family leaves and Anita is forced to explain that he is dead and return him to his grave. She and Larry prepare to leave for her next appointment. Larry, a twenty-year old college senior hired at Animators, Inc. for a job co-op, does not accept that his overreaching put him in danger. Anita considers him to be very innocent and young, although he is only a few months younger than when she started at the same job site. She wishes she could keep him innocent and tries to talk him out of his new job, but he refuses.

On their way to their cars, Anita and Larry are attacked by members of Humans First in an attempt to force Anita to reveal Jean-Claude’s name and resting place. Anita and Larry escape, but hit a child while driving away. They check on the child, and find that it is actually a child vampire, older than Jean-Claude and very powerful. The child vampire attacks them, together with two powerful female vampires and Alejandro, the master of the group. Using their necklace crosses and Anita’s cross charm bracelet, Anita and Larry fight off the vampires for a while, and even attempt to drive away a second time, but ultimately, Alejandro captures Larry and threatens to kill him unless Anita surrenders.

Alejandro also demands that Anita tell him the name and resting place of the Master of the City, but Anita refuses. Alejandro rollsAnita’s mind and she passes out. When she wakes up, the vampires are gone, apparently driven off by an attack from the members of Humans Against Vampires, who came to Anita’s aid under an “enemy of my enemy” principle. Larry drives Anita home and tells her that he wants to be both an animator and a vampire executioner. Anita reluctantly decides to be Larry’s mentor, resolving that if she cannot persuade him to forego hunting monsters, she will at least do her best to teach him the skills needed to stay alive. At home, Anita finds Edward, who threatens to torture her if she does not reveal the name of the Master of St. Louis. Anita tells him that Alejandro is the Master, and goes to sleep.

The next morning, Karl Inger calls and tells Anita that he has a plan to kill the Master of the City, and Anita agrees to meet with him. Karl takes Anita to a rural home, where she meets Mr Oliver, a vampire so old that he is a member of the homo erectus species, and Melanie, a lamia under Mr Oliver’s control. Mr Oliver explains that he wishes to become Master of the City, and demands that Anita reveal the master’s identity and location.

Anita evades the question and returns to St. Louis, where she learns from Ronnie that the two murder victims were both members of Humans Against Vampires and had dying wills requiring that they be staked after death. Both victims had the same lawyer, and Ronnie suspects that someone from the lawyer’s office leaked their identity to the murderers. Anita gives the lead to Dolph, who agrees to investigate.

That evening, Anita and Larry are interrupted in their animation duties by Jean-Claude, who demands that they meet him at the Circus of the Damned. Without revealing to Larry that Jean-Claude is Master of the City, Anita meets with him and learns that she has somehow received the first mark as Alejandro’s human servant as well as Jean-Claude’s, something that Jean-Claude had believed impossible.

The next morning, Anita arrives at home to find Melanie and three men waiting for her. They take her into a rural cave for what she believes is a meeting with Mister Oliver, then turn out the lights. Alejandro appears and demands that Anita become his human servant, but she attempts to escape. In the course of escaping, she kills the three men accompanying Melanie, as well as Melanie’s mate, a man named Raju who Melanie has converted into a half-snake form. Before dying, Raju bites Anita, injecting her with venom. Anita ultimately swims through a submerged tunnel to a lake and escapes in time to be picked up by Edward, who had followed her to the cave.

Edward takes Anita home, where they meet Richard. Anita is dying of lamia venom, and cannot be treated because lamias are believed to be extinct, so there is no anti-venom available. Richard suggests that they infect Anita with lycanthropy to save her life, but Anita says that she would rather die than become a lycanthrope. Richard refuses to let Anita die, and brings her to Jean-Claude, who marks Anita with the third mark as his human servant, drinking blood from her wrist and rendering her immune to poison. Anita is outraged that Jean-Claude has given her another mark, and threatens to kill him, notwithstanding that the mark saved her life.

In order to free herself from Jean-Claude, Anita calls Mr Oliver and reveals Jean-Claude’s name and location. Oliver promises to kill Jean-Claude that night, on Halloween. Shortly later, Dolph calls Anita and reveals the results of his investigation. A paralegal turned the names of the two murder victims over to the vampires, and, under questioning, reveals that there is a plot to force every vampire in St. Louis to begin a killing spree. Anita realizes that if Mr Oliver becomes Master of the City, he will be able to command every vampire in the city to begin a murder spree, and calls Jean-Claude to warn him. Jean-Claude is amazed that Anita is actually willing to kill him, but thanks her for the warning. Anita brings Edward to the Circus of the Damned and prepares for the battle.

Jean-Claude explains that he and Mr Oliver have agreed to a battle for control of the city. In front of a circus audience, their minions will fight physically, while Jean-Claude and Mr Oliver engage in a conflict of raw vampiric power. Edward, Anita, Rashida, Yasmeen, Marguerite, Richard and Stephen will fight for Jean-Claude, while Mr Oliver, Karl Inger, Alejandro, Melanie, and Alejandro’s pack of vampires will fight for Mr Oliver.

Edward kills most or all of Alejandro’s pack, while Alejandro kills Yasmeen. Marguerite, torn with grief, gouges out her eyes and is out of the fight. Alejandro marks Anita with the third and fourth mark, drinking Anita’s blood and forcing her to drink his, making Anita fully his human servant. Through their link, Anita learns that Oliver believes that the legalization of vampires is threatening to society, and that Oliver plans to force the city’s vampires into a killing spree in order to end America’s experiment with vampire legalization.

Ultimately, Oliver wins the battle and restrains Jean-Claude. Oliver demands that Anita stake Jean-Claude, reasoning that if Jean-Claude’s own supposed human servant kills him, he will be fully discredited. However, the combination of Anita’s own power as a necromancer and the power received as Alejandro’s human servant prevents either Oliver or Alejandro from controlling her directly. Richard, armed with a pistol, attempts to fight Oliver, but Oliver rips out his throat. Oliver attempts to intimidate Anita into killing Jean-Claude, but at the last minute, Anita carries out Alejandro’s plan, staking Oliver instead, then decapitating him. At that point, Alejandro attempts to kill Jean-Claude and usurp both Jean-Claude’s and Oliver’s positions, but Anita tears his heart out of his chest, then strangles him as she herself also dies from the strain of her “master’s” death.

Later, Anita comes to in the hospital and learns that Edward and paramedics revived her with CPR, that Jean-Claude is still alive, and that Richard also lived because, unknown to her, he was a werewolf, and a sufficiently powerful one to mask his identity. Richard explains that his pack leader had ordered him to attend Jean-Claude, but that he will no longer do so. Anita also learns that Alejandro’s marking of her as his human servant and subsequent death has removed Jean-Claude’s marks and that she is theoretically free of him. Anita decides to continue dating Richard, but isn’t sure if she can adjust to his lycanthropy, or why she was so sad when she had thought that Jean-Claude would be killed. Meanwhile, Melanie the lamia has begun work for Jean-Claude, as one of the attractions at the Circus of the Damned.

Characters in Circus of the Damned

Major characters

Circus of the Damned features the following major characters.

• Anita Blake: Anita continues her progression, as she initially is willing to kill Jean-Claude rather than be marked as his human servant, but ultimately continues to accept her role as a bridge between the worlds of humans and monsters in order to save the city. At the end of Circus of the Damned, Anita sees Jean-Claude as something more of a person and is willing to continue dating Richard, even though he is one of “the monsters.”
• Jean-Claude: Hamilton reveals a little more of Jean-Claude’s character in this novel. Jean-Claude’s control over the city is apparently precarious, and, true to form, he attempts to use this very weakness to force Anita to surrender to him, showing his previously established manipulative, seductive, and somewhat ruthless nature. In addition, Jean-Claude proves himself quite brave in his vastly overmatched battle against Mr. Oliver, and quite deeply attached to Anita when he does not attempt to kill her in revenge for her almost killing him, nor does he surrender his romantic pursuit.
• Richard Zeeman: A “nice guy” alternative to Jean-Claude’s manipulative seduction, Richard’s good looks and brown hair remind Anita of Phillip, the doomed stripper from Guilty Pleasures. Richard’s good looks, charm, and emotional vulnerability contributed to the love/hate relationship Anita developed with him over the next several novels.
• Mr Oliver: Mr Oliver is the most threatening opponent Anita had faced to date, and possibly the most threatening ever. By personifying her previous attitude that vampires were irredeemable monsters, Mr Oliver helped move Anita to some middle ground.
• Alejandro: An ancient vampire who is the first vampire to share all four marks with her,and thus the first to make her his full human servant, though she is by no means servantile towards him. Because of his actions in this novel she is free’d of Jean Claude’s marks that she had gained in Guilty Pleasures.

Other characters

• Circus of the Damned featured reappearances from Anita’s coworkers, Bert, and Ronnie, police officers Dolph and Zerbrowski, and recurring character John Burke

• The novel introduced recurring characters Larry Kirkland and Stephen.

• Non-recurring characters include: Jeremy Rubens, the leader of Humans Against Vampires, Karl Inger, the human servant of Mr Oliver, The first vampire to make her their full human servant Alejandro, Rashida, Melanie, and Marguerite, a beautiful but unstable blue eyed blond who is Yasmeen’s human servant and lover. After Yasmeen was killed, Marguerite clawed her eyes out in grief.

• The death toll in Circus of the Damnedincludes: Calvin Rupert and Reba Baker, Humans Against Vampires members killed by Alejandro’s pack; hospital guard Jimmy Dugan, an unnamed guard, an unnamed nurse and an unnamed vampire counsellor, killed by Rupert in an animalistic vampire state; Calvin Rupert, killed again as a vampire by Anita and John Burke; Raju, Ronald, and two unnamed men, all men ensorcelled by Melanie and killed by Anita; two unnamed snake creatures killed by Anita and Edward during the final battle; an unnamed child vampire and two unnamed women vampires, all members of Alejandro’s pack and killed (probably by Edward) during the final battle; Yasmeen, killed by Alejandro, and Oliver and Alejandro both killed by Anita.

Major themes

• Circus of the Damned combines elements of supernatural and detective fiction to continue a formula that Hamilton used for her first several novels.
• The novel also continues Anita’s character progression, as she continues to accept her own role as a supernatural being and her relationship with the “monsters” of Saint Louis, particularly Jean-Claude and Richard.
• In this novel, Hamilton first sets up the love trianglebetween Anita and Richard and Jean-Claude.
• This novel begins Richard’s character arc, as he shows his resentment of Jean-Claude and his concern with his status as a werewolf.

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circus_of_the_Damned_%28novel%29

4. The Lunatic Cafe

Plot introduction

The Lunatic Cafe continues the adventures of Anita Blake. Anita attempts to solve a series of shapeshifters disappearances while exploring her relationship with Richard Zeeman, her werewolf boyfriend, and avoiding the advances of Jean-Claude, a vampire would-be paramour. As with its predecessors, The Lunatic Cafe blends elements of supernatural, hard-boiled and police procedural fiction.

Explanation of the title

Within the novel, the “Lunatic Cafe” is the name of a restaurant that is operated by and serves as a base for St. Louisarea shapeshifters. Hamilton continued the practice of naming the novels after a fictional location within each novel for most of the Anita Blake series.

Plot summary

The Lunatic Cafe occurs shortly after the events of Circus of the Damned. (That novel ended on Halloween, and the events of The Lunatic Cafe take place before Christmas of that same year.)

Similar to the previous novels, The Lunatic Cafeopens with Anita interviewing a potential client. George Smitz tells Anita that his wife, Peggy, has disappeared. Anita explains that she is not trained as an investigator, and suggests that George contact the police, but he will not. Peggy is a werewolf, and George is afraid to contact the police because she owns and operates a butcher shop, and if her condition were made public, she would lose her customers. Anita ultimately refers George to Ronnie, who agrees to look into it.

That night, Anita meets Richard Zeeman for a date at a performance of Guys and Dolls. Anita is charmed that Richard likes musicals, but offput when she notices him watching theater patrons as if the were prey. Anita’s discomfort with Richard’s werewolf status increases when Jean-Claude arrives and reveals, during the course of a confrontation with Richard, that Richard is an alpha werewolf involved in a lengthy and possibly deadly battle for control of the local werewolf pack. Anita is upset that Richard has been concealing information from her, but ultimately leaves to answer a page from Dolph. As usual, Dolph wants Anita to inspect a crime scene, and Anita leaves.

As Anita travels to her car, she is confronted by Gretchen, an older, but not yet master, vampire in love with Jean-Claude. Gretchen demands that Anita surrender her claim to Jean-Claude and refuses to believe that Anita wishes to be rid of his interest. Jean-Claude then arrives and confronts Gretchen in a rage. After the two vampires fly off, Anita drives to the crime scene, located in a rural nature center.

At the nature center, Anita is confronted by Deputy Aikensen, who tries to prevent her from investigating. She learns that there is a vigorous dispute between Aikensen’s sheriff, Sheriff Titus, and Dolph over whether the person found was a victim of a bear attack or a possible crime. Titus and Aikensen argue that they have already identified the incident as a bear attack, and that no supernatural investigation is therefore necessary, while Dolph, Clive Perryand local police chief Chief Garroway want access to the crime scene. With the help of local caretaker and naturalist Sam Williams, Anita is able to convince Titus to grant her access to the scene. She determines that the attack was not a bear, and, after excluding the possibility of a flying attacker such as a gargoyle or dragon, deduces that the murder victim was killed by a shapeshifter who laid in wait on an overhead branch, then dropped onto his victim. She asks to have the claw prints and other clues sent to Washington University for inspection, knowing that Louie Fane will be likely to identify the species of shapeshifter.

When she arrives home, Anita finds Irving Griswold waiting for her. Irving explains that Richard has been in a succession conflict with local pack leader Marcus. Richard has actually beaten Marcus in a fight, but was unwilling to kill him and therefore failed to gain control of the pack. Marcus ordered Irving to contact Anita and ask her to meet with him, but Richard ordered Irving not to. Trapped between conflicting demands from two dominant werewolves, Irving asks for Anita’s protection, and Anita agrees to go with him to meet Marcus.

Irving leads Anita to “The Lunatic Cafe,” a restaurant with a largely lycanthrope clientele. Anita meets Raina and Alfred, two werewolves allied with Marcus, and is led into a back room, where she meets several more shapeshifters, including Gabriel, Elizabeth, Rafael, Kaspar, and Christine. Although Marcus leads the largest group of shapeshifters in St. Louis, the non-wolf shifters dispute his authority.

Before Marcus can explain the problem, he and Anita argue over whether he is dominant to her that ends with Anita drawing a gun. Egged on by Gabriel and Raina, Marcus orders Alfred to take the gun away from her, forcing Anita to shoot and kill Alfred. The blood excites the lycanthopes, who begin to have trouble maintaining human appearances or behavior. Anita attempts to leave, but is grabbed by Jason, a new werewolf who appears to be losing control of his humanity. Rafael saves Anita from the choice of whether to shoot Jason, distracting Jason with his own blood. Anita escapes, aided by Kaspar, who does not shift into a predator and is therefore not under any danger of losing control when exposed to blood. While the back room devolves into a lycanthrope feeding frenzy, Kaspar gives Anita a folder of information Marcus would otherwise have given her himself. On her way out of the cafe, Anita sees Edward seated in the front room.

At home, Anita reviews the folder and learns that in addition to Peggy Smitz, seven other lycanthropes have disappeared recently. Anita contacts Edward to learn if he has had anything to do with the disappearances, and agrees to meet with him later. Unable to reveal the missing lycanthropes to the police, Anita discusses the disappearances with Ronnie, and they consider whether Peggy’s disappearance might be part of a larger pattern.

Later, at work, Anita receives two potential clients. The first, Elvira Drew, explains that she is an author writing a book on shapeshifters and asks Anita to put her in touch with a wererat for a potential interview. Anita explains that most lycanthropes hide their identity to prevent discrimination, but promises to ask around. The second client is Kaspar, who has told Bert that he is interested in raising an ancestor in an effort to lift a family curse. Once alone with Anita, Kaspar reveals that he has been sent by Marcus, who has asked Kaspar to apologize for the previous night and ask for Anita’s help in solving the shapeshifter disappearance. Kaspar reveals that although he is in fact cursed to transform into a swan, he was personally cursed by a witch, centuries ago, and has walked the Earth ever since.

Anita arrives home and meets up with Richard for dinner. Richard has trouble accepting the ease with which Anita killed Alfred, his friend, and believes that Anita may be unwilling to have a relationship with him because he is a werewolf. Anita and Richard reconcile and Richard proposes marriage. Anita impulsively accepts.

Later, Anita meets Edward at his hotel room. Edward shows Anita a snuff filmin which Alfred and a masked wereleopard have sex with a human woman in both human and animal forms. Near the end of the film, Alfred, then in a wolfman form, kills the woman. Edward explains that the woman’s father has hired him to kill everyone involved with the movie, and Anita agrees to help him. Anita explains that she has already killed Alfred, and calls Richard to see if he can identify the wereleopard. Richard arrives and watches the movie. Although he is very upset by it, his inner “beast” is excited by both the sex and violence, and Anita’s second thoughts about their engagement increase. Richard tells Anita that Raina does make pornographic films, but that he does not believe that she has made any snuff films. Richard agrees to speak to Marcus to see if he knows anything about the films.

The next evening, Anita meets with Louis Fane, who is able to identify the murder victim’s wounds as having been caused by a lycanthrope. Anita asks Louis whether he knows any wererats who would be willing to participate in an interview with Elvira, and Louis offers to ask around. Louis and Anita discuss whether Anita is emotionally capable of having a relationship with a werewolf, and Anita leaves.

On her way out, Anita is confronted by Gretchen, who threatens to kill her. Louis, in his ratman form, attacks Gretchen, but is outclassed and quickly beaten. Gretchen bites Louis and uses his body as a shield against Anita’s gun, creating a stalemate. Ultimately, Anita resolves the conflict by telling Gretchen that she has become engaged to Richard. Gretchen agrees to leave, on the condition that Anita tell Jean-Claude about the engagement that night.

Suffering from an apparent concussion, Anita is able to drag the unconscious and injured Louis to her car and drive a few blocks, in order to prevent police from identifying him as a wererat. She calls Richard for help. He and Stephen arrive and take Louis and Anita to see Lillian, a wererat doctor.

After being checked out, Anita goes to see Jean-Claude. After a confrontation with Robert, Anita and Gretchen go to see Jean-Claude. Jean-Claude is outraged that Anita has become engaged to Richard, but is able to sense both that Anita is having doubts about the engagement and that Anita also has feelings for him. He offers not to kill Richard if Anita agrees to date both Richard and Jean-Claude for at least a few months, and Anita reluctantly agrees. Jean-Claude then punishes Gretchen for attacking Anita, reducing her to a feeble skeleton and locking her in a coffin for an indefinite period.

Jean-Claude and Anita are then interrupted by Raina, Gabriel, and Kaspar, who have forced their way past Robert to confront Jean-Claude. Gabriel attacks Anita, forcing her to stab him with a silver knife, but he forces the knife deeper, apparently out of a severe form of masochism. Anita also learns that Jean-Claude is still having difficulty maintaining control over the city, and is dependent on an alliance with Marcus, Raina, and the local werewolf pack. In order to maintain this alliance, Raina demands that Jean-Claude supply a vampire for her pornography operation, and Jean-Claude orders Robert to do so, both to mollify Raina and as punishment for allowing her to force her way in. As Anita leaves, Raina and Gabriel begin forcing Kaspar to demonstrate his shapeshift to Jean-Claude.

That night, a phone call from Dolph wakes Anita. Because she is still unable to drive, Zerbrowskipicks her up. Zerbrowski teases Anita about Richard and offers her relationship advice while he drives her to the scene, a giant snakeskin hooked on a river rock near the scene of the earlier murder. Anita and Deputy Aikensen enter the river to inspect the skin, and are surprised to find a skinned human body, still alive, in the river. Anita concludes that the victim was a naga, an immortal creature able to assume human or snake forms, and the naga is taken to the hospital for treatment.

Anita arrives home to find both Richard and Jean-Claude waiting for her. The men are close to blows over Richard’s presence in her apartment and Jean-Claude’s insistence that Anita date him as well as Richard. When Anita tries to separate them, she feels their magical energy combine in her, creating a great deal of magical power. She is threatened by the reaction, but Jean-Claude and Richard, each of whom are involved in power struggles, are intrigued by the possibilities. Ultimately, Anita asks Richard to leave and revokes her invitation to Jean-Claude, forcing him from her apartment.

The next day, Anita gets a call from Ronnie, who tells Anita that she has found evidence that George Smitz is having an affair. Anita and Ronnie consider whether George may have killed his wife and the other missing shapeshifters. Shortly later, Richard calls, and tells Anita that Jasonis missing. Anita asks Richard to get her backup for a confrontation with George. Richard is unable to accompany her personally and sends Raina and Gabriel, and Ronnie, Anita, and the weres drive out to speak to George.

On the drive, Anita recognizes Gabriel’s eyes as those of the masked participant in the snuff video. When they arrive, Anita and Ronnie confront George but are unsuccessful in making him confess. Raina intervenes and intimidates him into admitting that he killed Peggy in order to inherit her butcher’s shop. (Presumably, he hired Anita in order to provide some alibi if the police realized that Peggy was missing). However, George insists that he does not know anything about the remaining shapeshifter disappearances. George agrees to confess to the police in order to avoid being eaten by Raina and the pack.

Anita then goes to the hospital and questions the naga with Dolph. The naga is not fully coherent, but is able to tell them that he was attacked by witches, and that one of them had eyes the color of an ocean. Anita realizes that Elvira Drew must be hunting shapeshifters. She contacts her office and learns that Bert had put Elvira in contact with Louie Fane, who is now also missing.

Anita, Dolph, Zerbrowski, and several officers go to Elvira’s house, but Elvira will not let them in. Anita breaks into the back porch and basement and is confronted by Elvira, but screams for help, allowing the police to enter. At that point, the police are attacked by two other witches, each of whom has used the skin of one of the missing lycanthropes to shapeshift. During the fight, Zerbrowski is gutted and is taken to the hospital. All of the witches but Elvira are killed. The police find Louie in the house and agree to attempt to preserve his secret, but do not find Jason. Anita realizes that the witches were responsible for some of the shapeshifter disappearances, but that there are still some unaccounted for disappearances, including Jason.

Later, Anita gets a call from Sam Williams, the caretaker of the nature preserve where the murder victim was found. Williams has been listening to his tapes of nighttime wildlife and heard the call of a hyena. He and Anita deduce that there must have been a werehyena in the park, but before they can finish the call, Williams explains that police officers are at the door. Anita tries to tell him not to open the door, but he does and is attacked.

Anita races to the nature preserve, accompanied by Richard and Edward for backup. They find Williams shot dead, together with two of the local police who were present at the original crime scene. Anita gets a page from Kaspar, who asks her to come to his house.

When Anita, Richard and Edward arrive at Kaspar’s house, they are captured by Titus, Aikensen, and three hunters. Anita learns that Kaspar was once a European prince and hunter who was cursed to transform into a swan in order to learn kindness. However, Kaspar just became more and more resentful at being cursed to transform into prey, and formed a scheme with Titus to capture shapeshifters and offer them for expensive and illegal hunts. The initial murder victim had been a hunter whose hunt had gone wrong, and Titus and Aikensen had tried to cover up the crime. However, Titus realizes that the other police now know too much, and he and Aikensen plan to flee after one last hunt. They lock Edward and Richard in one cage, and Anita in a second cage, together with Jason, reasoning that with the approaching full moon, Jason will not be able to resist transforming into a wolf and eating Anita, at which point they will be able to hunt him.

Initially, Richard is able to restrain Jason as a dominant alpha werewolf. At that point, the hunters cut open one of Anita’s wounds, anticipating that the blood will force Jason to lose control. As they do so, Anita is able to get hold of one of the hunters’ guns and shoots him. In the confusion, Edward and Richard are able to grab and kill a second hunter, and Edward uses the hunter’s rifle to kill Titus and the third hunter. Anita stabs Aikensen, and she and Edward leave, allowing Richard to take the now transformed Jason out to hunt, just as the police begin to arrive.

The police accept Anita and Edward’s story, as well as Edward’s identification and claimed identity. In the epilogue, Anita explains that she is continuing to date Richard and Jean-Claude and has exchanged Christmas presents with each of them. Raina and Gabriel have claimed that they had no idea Alfred was planning to kill the woman in the snuff film, and Anita has accepted their explanation for now. A few months after the events of the main novel, Edward sent Anita a swan skin with a note, explaining that Marcus had hired him to kill Kaspar, and that Edward had eventually tracked down the fugitive and hired a witch to lift his curse, allowing Edward to kill him. Anita has the skin framed and mounted on her wall, to Richard’s displeasure.

Characters in The Lunatic Cafe

Major characters

The Lunatic Cafe features the following major characters.

• Anita Blake: In this novel, Anita takes on a job that involves primarily protecting supernatural beings from humans. She also agrees, at least tentatively, to date Jean-Claude, further marking her acceptance of the supernatural. At the same time, even though she becomes engaged to Richard, severe cracks begin to appear in their relationship.
• Jean-Claude: Jean-Claude continues to show his ruthless and manipulative nature in this novel, as he punishes his underlings quite severely and forces Anita to date him based on a threat to Richard’s life. In this novel, even though he functions primarily as an obstacle to Anita’s relationship with Richard, Anita is forced to admit that she is attracted to him.
• Richard Zeeman: This novel begins to introduce the problems that have plagued Richard and Anita thereafter — Anita’s discomfort with Richard’s lycanthropy, Richard’s discomfort with her ruthlessness, Richard’s insecurity about his own nature, and their mutual competition for dominance in their relationship and in the pack.

Other characters

• The Lunatic Cafe featured reappearances from Anita’s coworkers, Bert, and Ronnie, police officers Dolph, Zerbrowski, and Clive Perry and recurring characters Irving Griswold, Robert, Stephen, and Lillian.

• The novel introduced recurring characters Gretchen, Jason Schuyler, Marcus Fletcher, Raina Wallis, Gabriel, Elizabeth and Christine.

• Non-recurring characters include: Chief Garroway, a non-dominant werewolf named “Polly” who Anita intimidates, and various supporting characters.

• The death toll in The Lunatic Cafeincludes: an unnamed hunter killed by his lycanthrope prey in a hunt gone wrong; Peggy Smitz, killed by her husband George, seven unnamed shapeshifters, killed either by the shapeshifting witches or by hunters; an unnamed woman killed by Alfredin a snuff film; Alfred, shot by Anita; Sam Williams, and two of Garroway’s deputies (Holmes and Lind) presumably killed by Aikensen as part of the hunting cover-up; Sheriff Titus and two hunters (Carmichael and an unnamed hunter) killed by Edward during the final confrontation; Deputy Aikensen and one hunter (Feinstein), killed by Anita during the final confrontation; and Kaspar, killed by Edward after the main events of the novel.

Major themes

• The Lunatic Cafe is notable in that it alters the structure of the previous three novels. In each of the original three Anita Blake novels, Anita initially encounters (1) a client or other situation related to her job as an animator; (2) a crime scene related to her job as police consultant; and (3) some dramatic tension relating to her connections to the St. Louis supernatural world, particularly Jean-Claude. Ultimately in the first three novels, each of the situations turns out to be related to a single criminal scheme, which Anita confronts and defeats. In The Lunatic Cafe, this pattern is altered — although Anita encounters the usual early events: (1) a request from George Smitz to investigate his wife’s disappearance; (2) a person murdered by a shapeshifter; and (3) a demand by Marcus that Anita solve a series of shapeshifter disappearances, the events do not turn out to be related. Instead, although Anita believes that they are related, the disappearances and murders turn out to be the result of three unrelated criminal schemes.
• Anita’s habit of protecting the weak comes strongly into play in The Lunatic Cafe, as she extends protection to Irving Griswold and also acts to protect Louie and Robert. This pattern, together with her inability to back down from confrontation, draws her deeper and deeper into St. Louis’s supernatural society, often against her will.
• The Lunatic Cafe is notable as one of the few Anita Blake novels that does not involve Anita’s powers as a necromancer. Other than sensing mystical energy, Anita does not use her supernatural abilities in this book.

Release details

UK cover 2000

US cover 2002

• 1996, New York, Ace Books (Penguin Putnam), ISBN 0-441-00293-5, Paperback
• 2000, London, Orbit, ISBN 1-84149-049-0
• 2002, New York, Jove Books (Penguin Putnam), ISBN 0-515-13452-X
• 2003, New York, Penguin, eBook ISBN 0-7865-4577-1, eBook
• 2005, New York, Berkeley (Penguin Putnam), ISBN 0-425-20137-6

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lunatic_Cafe_%28novel%29“

5. Bloody Bones

Plot introduction

Bloody Bones continues the adventures of Anita Blake. This time, Anita travels to Branson, Missouri and is quickly enmeshed in a series of supernatural murders and disappearances that she and her vampire would-be lover, Jean-Claude must resolve. As with its predecessors, Bloody Bones blends elements of supernatural, hardboiled and police procedural fiction.

Explanation of the title

Within the novel, “Bloody Bones” is the name of a restaurant that is operated by two of the principal characters in the novel, Magnus and Dorcas Bouvier. Hamilton employed the practice of naming each novels after a fictional location within the story for most of the Anita Blake series. In this case, the restaurant itself is named after a character in the novel, Rawhead and Bloody Bones, making the title somewhat eponymous.

Plot summary

Bloody Bones begins on Saint Patrick’s Day, shortly after the events of the previous Anita Blake novel, The Lunatic Cafe. Like the previous novels, the novel opens with Anita considering a possible job. This time, her manager, Bert, is calculating a possible bid for a mass zombie raising in Branson, Missouri. Bert explains that a law firm is soliciting bids to raise an entire graveyard in order to determine who owns a piece of land needed for a resort complex. The graves are unmarked and may contain corpses at least 200 years old, which will make the raising very difficult. In Anita’s opinion, she is the only person in the world who might be able to raise that many ancient unmarked graves without a human sacrifice. She agrees to take the job, and takes Larry along to boost her powers, and as a training experience. (She and Bert agree that although John Burke also has the power to make a good second, his pride is such that it’s best that he not even learn that Anita took a job that he was not strong enough to take on his own).

Arriving in Branson, Anita meets Raymond Stirling, the lawyer in charge of the development project and his assistants, Lionel Bayard, Ms Harrison and Beau, and learns that Stirling is in a dispute with Magnus and DorcasBouvier, two siblings who claim to own the land at issue and refuse to sell. If the corpses on the land confirm that it belongs to the Bouviers, Stirling’s project will be unable to continue.

After reviewing the site and making plans to explore the site further that evening, Anita receives a call from Dolph. Dolph asks Anita for advice on a crime scene back in St. Louisand also asks her to assist the local police with a nearby crime scene. Anita and Larry drive to the scene and meet Sergeant Freemont, who appears to want to crack the case herself and resents their intrusion. Anita inspects the murder victims — three teen-aged or younger boys cut apart with a blade. Each of the boys’ faces have been disfigured or removed, and Freemont reveals that a teenaged boy and girl were murdered earlier, with similar wounds. Anita warns Freemont that in her opinion, the boys were cut apart by a sword wielded something as fast and strong as a vampire, with enough mental power to hold two of the boys motionless while killing the third. Larry is seriously shaken by viewing his first murder scene.

Anita and Larry then go to the Bouviers’ restaurant, named “Bloody Bones,” to investigate the land dispute and to get dinner. There, they meet Magnus and Dorrie, each of whom is part-fey. Magnus is using glamourto host a date night. By touching the restaurant patrons, he makes them irresistibly attractive for one night, in return for drawing some power for himself. After trying unsuccessfully to seduce Anita, Magnus is coy about why the Bouviers refuse to sell their land. Magnus also admits to destroying several trees outside the restaurant while in a drunken rage, causing Anita to consider him as a suspect for the recent killings.

During dinner, Dolph pages Anita again, and asks her to assist on another possible local vampire crime. Anita tells Dolph that Magnus is part-fey and a potential suspect, then Anita and Larry drive to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Quinlan. There, they meet Sheriff David St. John, his wife Beth, Deputy Zack Coltraine, Mr. and Mrs. Quinlan, and their son Jeff. Jeff’s older sister, Ellie is lying in her bed, dead of a vampire bite. Anita and Larry eventually deduce that her death was probably voluntary, and learn that Ellie’s boyfriend Andy recently disappeared. They guess that Ellie’s boyfriend has recently been raised as a vampire and turned her as well, but Mr. Quinlan refuses to believe them and demands that Anita stake Ellie to prevent her from rising. Anita asks him to wait twenty-four hours to “cool off” and promises to stake Ellie if her father demands it after that time.

After instructing the Quinlans to place the Hostat each doorway to prevent any vampires from reentering the home, Anita explains that the vampire that turned Ellie probably has a resting place nearby, and that they may catch it if they attempt a nighttime hunt. She heads out into the woods after it, together with Larry, Sheriff St. John, Deputy Coltraine, and two other police officers, Wallace and Granger. During the hunt, Anita learns that Wallace was a survivor of a vampire attack and shows him her own scars in an effort to put him at ease.

During the hunt, Anita and the others are ambushed by a pack of vampires. In the fight, Anita kills two vampires, but Granger is bitten, Wallace’s arm is broken, and Xavier kills Coltraine with a sword. While the hunters regroup, Granger, now under vampire control, attempts to shoot Larry, and Anita is forced to kill him. The group then hears screams from the Quinlan home, and St. John and Anita run for the house, leaving Larry and Wallace to bring up the rear.

When Anita gets to the house, Beth St. John is dead and Jeff has been taken. (Apparently, Xavier was able to shapeshift and fit through a pet door). Sheriff St. John kills a brown haired, female vampire. Anita shoots at Xavier, but he’s too fast to hit.

Later, Sergeant Freemont arrives at the scene. She explains that after Dolph told her that Magnus was part fey, she went to arrest him. Mangus used glamour to escape, and is now wanted for using magic on police officers during the course of his escape. FBI agents Elwood and Bradford arrive and speak to Anita, who agrees to attempt to identify and contact the Master of the City.

Anita calls Jean-Claudefor information. Jean-Claude explains that he thinks he knows the vampire Anita saw, and that it is an “exotic” vampire of a sort concealed from humans. Among other things, it is a pedophile. Jean-Claude offers to come to Branson to set up a meeting with the Master of the City. With Jeff Quinlan in the hands of a monster, Anita is forced to accept Jean-Claude’s help.

With no way to pursue the Quinlan case, Anita and Larry return to the graveyard to “walk the graveyard” and attempt to sensethe location and identities of the corpses in preparation for a later attempt to raise the dead. Anita and Larry experiment with combining powers, and are surprised at the degree to which they are able to magnify each other’s abilities. However, their powers attract Magnus, who appears and insists that they not raise the dead in that graveyard. Stirling orders Beau to shoot Magnus for trespassing, but Anita, realizing that Stirling intended the evening as a trap for Magnus, draws her own gun and buys Magnus time to escape.

Anita and Larry return to their hotel suite to find Jean-Claude and Jason. Jean-Claude has flown in on his private jet, but it is now too late in the night to track down the Master before dawn. Jean-Claude informs Anita of Xavier’s name, then retires for the morning in her bed. Jason visits with Anita and Larry, and challenges Anita for dominance. Anita wins, of course, and figures out that Jean-Claude has ordered Jason to show his lycanthrope side in an effort to dissuade Anita from marrying Richard. Jason acknowledges Anita as dominant and goes to bed.

Later that morning, Dorcas Bouvier bursts into Anita’s hotel suite and demands to see Magnus. After Dorcas bursts into the bedroom and sees Jean-Claude and Jason, she accepts that Anita has not fallen victim to Magnus’s charms and explains why the Bouviers refuse to sell their land. Centuries ago their ancestor, a member of the fey, emigrated to colonial North America with a more powerful fey, Rawhead and Bloody Bonestrapped in a magic box. While Rawhead was trapped, Bouvier was able to create a potion from its blood and increase his own powers, but eventually, Rawhead escaped and went on a murderous rampage. After a pitched battle, Rawhead was sealed beneath the ground, and the Bouvier family has remained in Branson in order to prevent Rawhead from escaping. Anita convinces Dorcas to take her to see the mound where Rawhead is trapped, and they agree to go to the mound the following day.

That evening, Jean-Claude prepares the group to meet Seraphina, the master of Branson. He explains that his visit raises issues of vampire politics. Although vampires’ interactions with one another are somewhat constrained by the laws of the Vampire Council, conflicts are still possible, and he has negotiated a delicate truce with Seraphina. Although the group must be prepared to fight, they may not strike the first blow. Jean-Claude and Anita, accompanied by Larry and Jason, visit an apparently ruined and abandoned home, cloaked in magical shadow, and meet Ivy, Bruce, Kissa, Janos, Pallas and Bettina.

The Branson vampires engage in a calculated plan to force Jean-Claude’s party to break the truce. Without offering violence to his group, they threaten to torture two young women, then sexually harass Jason. Jean-Claude is forced to challenge Janos to a contest of power, which he begins to lose. Ultimately, Anita escapes the trap by baiting Ivy into attacking her, allowing the group to use violence in their own defense. In the ensuing battle, Larry kills Bruce, and Pallas and Bettina are first shot, then torn apart. (However, because they are rotting vampires, they are almost impossible to kill.) Anita is forced to give blood to save Jean-Claude’s life.

Once Jean-Claude is stabilized, Magnus appears and offers to convey the group to see Seraphina under a flag of truce. Seraphina toys with the group, but ultimately agrees that a murderous pedophile master vampire in her territory is a threat, and agrees to track down Xavier. Jean-Claude is astounded that Seraphina has somehow become powerful enough to assert mastery over vampires as formidable as Janos.

The group returns to the hotel to clean up. Anita learns more about Jean-Claude’s history and momentarily surrenders to her lust and kisses Jean-Claude, but stops when he draws blood (though he claims it was by accident). She stays with Jean-Claude as dawn comes and he “dies” for the day and is surprised at her growing sympathy towards him. Anita then falls asleep herself and is visited in her dream by Seraphina, who promises to reunite Anita with her deceased mother if Anita agrees to serve Seraphina. Anita wakes, and begins planning to kill Seraphina.

Anita and Larry meet up with Dorcas Bouvier, who takes them to the mound where Bloody Bones is imprisoned. When they arrive, they surprise Magnus in the act of drinking Bloody Bones’s blood, and Dorcas realizes that Magnus has been using Bloody Bones to boost his power for years. Anita proposes that instead of raising the entire Bouvier graveyard, she raise just enough zombies to confirm the Bouviers’ claim to the land and prevent Stirling from digging up the graveyard and freeing Bloody Bones.

That evening, accompanied by Stirling, Bayard, and Harrison, Anita and Larry combine their powers to animate a few of the ancient corpses in the Bouvier graveyard. Just before Anita completes the circle of blood needed to activate their power, she feels Bloody Bones stir and realizes that raising even a few zombies will free the monster. She stops, but Ivy flies from the darkness and attacks. Anita kills Ivy in self-defense, but Ivy’s blood falls on the remaining span of the circle, closing the loop and activating her power. Similar to Anita’s inadvertent human sacrifices in The Laughing Corpse, Ivy’s death supercharges Anita’s power, forcing her to animate every corpse in the graveyard.

At that point, Stirling and Harrison draw guns, and Stirling shoots Bayard. Apparently, Seraphina and Bloody Bones promised Stirling the land in return for Bloody Bones’s freedom, and Stirling had planned on killing Anita once she raised the Bouviers and freed the fey. Anita orders the zombies to attack Stirling and Harrison and incapacitates them both. While she considers whether to kill them, Janos arrives with a newly risen Ellie, accompanied by Bettina, Pallas, Kissa, Xavier and their hostage, Jeff Quinlan. The vampires feed on and kill Stirling and Harrison, and inform Anita that Xavier has been serving Seraphina since her arrival in Branson.

Seraphina’s vampires fly away, and Anita goes to confront them and attempt rescue Jeff, with the help of Jean-Claude, Larry, and Jason. Bloody Bones arrives and demands its freedom, but Seraphina breaks her word to the fey and announces her intent to continue drinking its power forever. With her oath broken, Larry and Anita are able to break her spell over Bloody Bones, and it draws a sword and impales Seraphina. Bloody Bones admits to Anita that it has been able to manifest its form as a result of Magnus’s interference, and that it killed the teenagers for being bad children. Realizing that Bloody Bones is mortal as long as it continues to share power with Magnus, Anita shoots the boggle, slowing it down long enough for Xavier to kill it with a greatsword forged of cold iron. Anita infers that Xavier is a fey raised as a vampire, although Xavier denies it. Seraphina regains control, and decides that Anita’s blood might make an acceptable second choice for Bloody Bones’s. In return for Anita surrendering herself, Seraphina agrees to let the others go.

The next morning, Anita wakes up next to Seraphina in her coffin. She forces her way out and learns that the coffins of Seraphina’s vampires have been moved to the Bloody Bones bar and grill. (Ellie does not have a coffin and is sleeping on the floor.) Anita tries to escape, but Magnus stops her. In the course of the fight, Anita drips some of her blood on Ellie and realizes that she can raise Ellie as if she were a zombie. She does so and orders Ellie to hold Magnus while she makes her escape. With Ellie clinging to his waist, Magnus chases Anita outside and is burned to death when Ellie burns in the sunlight.

Anita contacts Agent Bradford and tells him where the vampires are resting. With Anita, Larry and the local authorities, Bradford douses the Bloody Bones restaurant with gasoline and prepares to set it on fire. Anita feels Seraphina in her mind and forces the agents to handcuff her and lock her in a car so that Seraphina cannot use her control over Anita to interfere. As the fire consumes all of the vampires inside, including the now-dead Jeff Quinlan, Seraphina forces Anita to relive the death of her own mother, renewing her earlier trauma.

In the epilogue, Anita explains that Dorcas, now free of the family curse, sold the Bouvier land and left Branson with her children, that the Quinlans are suing Animators, Inc. because of Anita’s refusal to stake Ellie when asked, and that Anita herself is continuing her life in St. Louis, not withstanding the fresh emotional wounds.

Characters in Bloody Bones

Major characters

• Anita Blake: In Bloody Bones, Anita further develops her role as Larry’s mentor, and is forced to ask Jean-Claude for substantial help for the first time. She also relives the trauma of her mother’s death. According to Hamilton’snotes in the afterword, writing the novel was also traumatic for Hamilton herself, because it required Hamilton to re-experience her own mother’s death, the event that served as a model for Anita’s childhood experience).
• Jean-Claude: Jean-Claude’s admission that the Vampire Council has divided his territory, together with his conflict with Serephina and Janos, further underscores the difficulty he is having as the newly installed Master of the City, a conflict that appear in several of the early novels. In addition, the appearance of vampires from Jean-Claude’s past allows Anita to learn more about the circumstances that have made him into the vampire she knows.
• Richard Zeeman: Richard appears only in the beginning of the novel, when Anita visits to tell him that she’s going out of town, and is mentioned in the epilogue.

Other characters

• Recurring characters in Bloody Bones include:
  • Anita’s co-workers Bert Vaughn and Larry Kirkland;
  • police officer Dolph Storr; and
  • Jean-Claude’s pomme de sang Jason Schuyler.

• Non-recurring characters in Bloody Bones include:
  • Raymond Stirling;
  • Lionel Bayard;
  • Ms Harrison;
  • Mr and Mrs Quinlan, and their children Ellie and Jeff;
  • Dorcas Bouvier;
  • Sergeant Freemont;
  • Beau;
  • Lisa and her unnamed friend, two college girls who agree to visit Seraphina’s lair;
  • David St. John
  • Officer Wallace, a police officer that accompanies Anita on her vampire hunt;
  • Federal agents Elwood and Bradford.

• The death toll in Bloody Bones includes:
  • Three unnamed murdered teenage boys, killed by Bloody Bones;
  • A teenage boyfriend and girlfriend, killed before the novel begins by Bloody Bones;
  • Andy, presumably killed by Anita in an early firefight;
  • Deputy Zack Coltraine nearly decapitated by a vampire in an early firefight;
  • Officer Granger, killed by Anita to prevent him from shooting Larry.
  • Beth St. John, killed by an unnamed brown haired female vampire.
  • The brown haired female vampire herself, killed by Beth’s husband, David St. John;
  • Bruce, shot by Larry at Seraphina’s house
  • Lionel Bayard, shot by Stirling
  • Ivy, killed by Anita in self-defense;
  • Ms Harrison, was severely injured after Anita ordered a zombie to attack her, later drained by Ellie and Xavier
  • Raymond Stirling, drained by Pallas and Bettina
  • Rawhead and Bloody Bones, killed by Anita and Xavier;
  • Ellie, turned into a vampire by Andy and killed when Magnus dragged her into sunlight;
  • Magnus Bouvier, burned to death when Anita forced Ellie to hold onto his waist as he ran out into sunlight;
  • Seraphina, Xavier, Janos, Pallas, Bettina, (presumably) Kissa, and Jeff Quinlan, burned when authorities set fire to the Bloody Bones.

Major themes

• Anita’s relationship with Jean-Claude takes a large step forward in this novel. For the first time, Anita requires Jean-Claude’s substantial help as more than a source of information. In addition, as Anita sees Jean-Claude “die” with the dawn, gives him blood to save his life, and by spending a book with Jean-Claude but not Richard, Jean-Claude becomes a more substantial rival for Anita’s affections.

Release details

2005 UK cover

US paperback cover

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_Dreams_%28novel%29“

13. Micah

Plot introduction

Micah represents a side-adventure of Anita Blake. Rather than follow up immediately on the various plotlines left open in the previous novel, Incubus Dreams, Hamilton has written a much shorter work focusing primarily on Anita’s relationships with one of her lovers, the eponymous Micah Callahan. Specifically, Anita is called to Philadelphia to perform an zombie animation and takes Micah on the trip. While in Philadelphia, Micah and Anita have sex, discuss their relationships and his earlier traumas, and encounter some strange twists in Anita’s assignment. As with some of the other later novels in the series, Micah blends elements of supernatural, detective and erotic fiction.

Explanation of the title

In this case, the title is eponymous, named after Anita’s lover, Micah Callahan. To date, only three of the Anita Blake novels, Obsidian Butterfly, Micah and The Harlequin, have had titles related to a person or being, rather than location, within the story.

Plot summary

Micah apparently takes place approximately one month after the events of Incubus Dreams. (Tammy Reynolds, one of the characters in the series, is four months pregnant in Incubus Dreams and five months pregnant in Micah). As usual, Anita must juggle several problems simultaneously.

• First, in her role as an animator, Anita must travel to Philadelphia on short notice to substitute for Larry Kirkland, who must remain in St. Louis because of complications in his wife Tammy’s pregnancy. Although the assignment — reanimating a recently deceased federal witness in order to testify in an organized crime investigation — initially seems routine, Anita quickly begins to suspect that there is more to the case than she and Larry have been told.
• Second, Anita continues to deal with her various personal problems, in this case her relationship with Micah, who accompanies her on the trip. Anita must come to terms with Micah’s decision to reserve a nice hotel room for the two of them without telling her, and must help Micah get over two of the defining problems in his life: first, the trauma narrowly surviving a wereleopard attack that left several members of his family dead; and second, the trauma of accidentally harming a previous girlfriend during sex, due to his unusually large penis.
• Third, Anita continues wrestle with her recent increase in power, first attempting to deal with the ardeur, a metaphysical effect that causes Anita to need to have sex every few hours, and second, wrestling with the vast increase in her own powers as a necromancer, which are now so powerful that her attempt to raise a single person threatens to raise every corpse in the cemetery. As usual, Anita is able largely to resolve each of these problems by the end of the novella.
• The initial plot point — the animation — is not resolved until the very end of the novella. Although Anita initially wrestles with her increase in power, she is ultimately able to confine her power to a single corpse, raising only the witness, Emmett Leroy Rose. However, Anita then learns that although Rose technically died of a heart attack, the heart attack itself occurred after the defense lawyer in the investigation, Arthur Salvia, framed Rose for murder. Rose therefore considers Salvia his murderer and will not rest until he has killed Salvia. In the ensuing fracas, Anita is knocked unconscious, and Salvia is killed.
• With regard to Anita’s personal problems, she and Micah make some progress. Anita decides to accept that Micah surprised her with the romantic hotel, and listens to him share the traumas of almost being eaten alive by a wereleopard and of being rejected by various women. Anita sympathizes with Micah’s survivor’s guilt, and, in a conversation very similar to her conversation with Richard in Incubus Dreams, explains to Micah that some women don’t like well-endowed men, but other women, such as Anita, do.

Characters in Micah

Major characters

• Anita Blake:
• Micah: Micah reveals some of his past and shows an emotion that is not so easy-going. Anita actually hurt his feelings when she didn’t like the hotel room, which he arranged for once he realized that it was only going to be the two of them, this one time. Micah has also never seen nor helped Anita’s animator part before, so the zombie raising was a new experience. He also points out that it is hard to be a man in Anita’s life because she’s so aggressive and it was nice to see her be weak or coward-like on the airplane.
• Nathaniel: Nathaniel appears only in the beginning and end of the novella, and is his typical supportive self. The only major character development for Nathaniel is when he and Micah reveal that they believe that Asher has a crush on Nathaniel.

Other characters

Recurring characters include:

• Larry Kirkland: Larry appears in the beginning and in the end, to put the zombie to rest. Apparently Tammy’s baby is fine, the labor was stopped.
• Agent Franklin: Someone that Anita worked in New Mexico with Bradley Bradford, who doesn’t like Anita very much and has apparently been reassigned. When Anita is in the graveyard however, Agent Franklin appears to be a bit sensitive to the magic or spirits involved which might explain the dislike.

Non-recurring characters include:

• Special Agent Chester Fox: Who met Micah after he was attacked by a wereleopard that had killed his cousin, and his uncle, while nearly killing him. Agent Fox told Micah that he owes him twice now, once for not having the guts to demand that there be a warning for the hunters about the rampaging wereleopard/killer in the area, and twice for not looking deeper into the Rose case, potentially allowing Anita to be hurt as she was.

The death toll in Micah includes: Arthur Salvia and a salesman die in this novel’s timeline. Other deaths are mentioned that happened in the past, however. The zombie took care of Salvia, after Salvia tried to hire someone to take care of the animator who would raise the zombie.

Trivia

• Although the Jove edition of the novella is listed at 288 pages, the novella has been typeset to increase its page length. Uniquely among the Anita Blake series, Micah is doublespaced, with wide margins on each page, and a full page and a half of blank space surrounding each chapter number.

Critical reception

• A March 26, 2006 review in the Boston Globe was largely negative, writing “To be fair, this may not have been the best place to jump into a series, but we were not impressed. Hamilton no doubt appeals to romance and erotica lovers, but it does not take long for the clichés and the constant droning about sex to become tiresome.”^[1]

References

1. ^ O’Gorman, Rochelle. “Beware the Ringing Cell”, Boston Globe, 2006-03-26, p. C7. ISSN 07431791.

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micah_%28novel%29“

14. Danse Macabre

Plot introduction

Anita’s adventures continue, as a possible pregnancy threatens to force her to change her already unstable relationship with her several lovers. Meanwhile, Anita deals with the arrival of several master vampires and their retainers for a vampire ballet sponsored by Jean-Claude, her own developing powers, and the increasing interest of the Mother of Darkness. As with the past several books, Anita’s ardeur complicates her efforts by forcing her to have frequent sex with her various lovers.

Explanation of the title

Classically, “Danse Macabre” most often refers to the Dance of Death– a series of medieval allegorical paintings about the universality of death. Or it can also be translated from French to “gruesome dance.” Within the novel, “Danse Macabre” is the name of the vampire ballet company that performs during the course of the novel’s events, or to the general “vampire politics” that serves as the central conflict in Danse Macabre. Although “Danse Macabre” is also the name of a vampire-themed nightclub owned by Jean-Claude, the nightclub appears only briefly at the end of this novel.

Plot summary

Danse Macabre appears to take place a few weeks after the events of Incubus Dreams and almost immediately after the events of Micah, assuming that the series of serial killings that Anita’s friend Ronnie refers to as occurring two weeks earlier are the killings Anita investigates in Incubus Dreams.

Unlike the previous thirteen novels, neither Anita’s role as a Federal Marshal nor her job as a zombie animator plays any part in this novel. Instead, Anita must juggle a series of problems arising from her own increasing power, Jean-Claude’s vampire politics, and her own personal life, complicated in this case by Anita’s apparent pregnancy.

• First, Anita believes that she may be pregnant. This forces her to confront the difficult choice of whether to bring the child to term, as well as whether to inform the various potential fathers. (Richard, Nathaniel, Jean-Claude, Asher, and Damian).
  • Richard and Nathaniel are the most likely candidates for fatherhood; Micah had a lycanthrope vasectomy (silver clamps on the vas deferens); vampires in this world are capable of fathering a child, either via sperm created prior to their death for the newly dead, or if their body temperature is kept elevated for a long enough period of time to create new sperm, but the likelihood goes down with age. A vampire over the age of 100 is not a likely candidate.
  • Micah and Nathaniel are willing to rearrange their lives to take on the primary parenting responsibilities. By contrast, Richard proposes monogamous marriage and expects that Anita will stop being a vampire executioner and federal marshal.
  • A child of Anita’s would have a significant risk of birth defects. Previous books have mentioned “Vlad Syndrome”, occurring in children of vampires, which in severe cases results in death of both the child and the mother. Anita is also at risk of “Mowgli Syndrome”, which can occur when a shapeshifter has intercourse in animal (or part-animal) form. Not all details are discussed, but it is noted that the fetus can develop at the rate of the beast instead of human — which could put Anita past the legal abortion threshold in only a few weeks or months, depending on the animal.
• Second, Anita’s increasing powers continue to lead to new problems. In particular, Anita is attempting to select a pomme de sang from a variety of candidates, leading to a series of conflicts between various persons who wish to join her harem of lovers. In addition, she discovers that her ardeur has been shaping both her own and her lovers’ feelings and personalities, making Anita question whether her love for Micah and Nathaniel is real. Finally, Anita discovers that she may be a pan-were, and that in addition to being the dominant female of the local wolf and leopard pack, she may also become Regina, or Queen, of the local werelion pack, leading to a conflict between the lions eager to become her Rex, or lion king.
• Third, Anita is involved in a variety of conflicts relating to vampire politics, largely relating to Jean-Claude’s decision to invite a vampire ballet and several master vampires to St. Louis.
  • Augustine, the master of Chicago, Illinois, attempts to force Anita to love him, and hopes to control the local were-lion pack by introducing a dominant were-lion of his choosing.
  • Thea—who is not only the wife of the master of Cape Cod but a siren—wishes Anita to sleep with one or all of her three sons, in the hope that Anita can bring them into their power.
  • Merlin, head of the vampire ballet, attempts to mentally dominate all of the master vampires and lycanthropes present at the performance, for reasons he will not reveal.
  • Meng Die is becoming increasingly jealous of Anita’s irresistibility to the men in their circle, to the point where she attempts to kill Requiem
  • Both Belle Morte and The Mother of Darkness continue their attempts to dominate Anita.

Ultimately, Anita resolves most of these conflicts:

• After reluctantly deciding to have the baby, Anita ultimately learns that she is not pregnant, and that her positive test result was caused by her unique body chemistry.
• Anita learns to accept that her love may be manufactured in part by the ardeur, particularly in the cases of Nathaniel and Micah, both of whom have had their personalities shaped by the ardeur to meet Anita’s needs (and vice versa). She accepts that she possesses several metaphysical “beasts,” and rejects Haven, a dominant were-lion that Augustine hoped to use to dominate the St. Louis pack.
• Anita is also able to navigate most of the challenges raised by vampire politics.
  • Using the ardeur, Anita and Jean-Claude bind Augustine, increasing their own power. They also turn the tables on him by feeding not only on him, but on his entourage. (Although Anita now loves Augustine, she is sufficiently stubborn that this love does not gain him an advantage).
  • Anita promises to sleep with Thea’s oldest son to see if she can raise his powers through the ardeur.
  • Anita defeats Merlin’s attempt to dominate the assembled vampires and shape-shifters, and questions him for information about the Mother of Darkness.
  • The combined threat of Anita, Jean-Claude, and all of their vampires is enough to make Meng Die agree not to kill anyone for the night.
  • Anita is able to evade Belle Morte and the Mother of Darkness’s attempts to control her, although she continues to fear them.

Unresolved plotlines

Due to the small amount of time lapsed in this novel (the events last only a day), Anita is unable to resolve any of the plotlines left open in Incubus Dreams, and leaves several questions unresolved in this book as well.

• Although the epilogue to Incubus Dreams stated that Anita intended to investigate the Stevie Brown murder soon, the narration does not reveal whether Anita has made progress in her investigation.
• Danse Macabre does not reveal whether Gregory and Stephen have learned anything about why their father has reappeared, a plotline that was mentioned, but not resolved, in Cerulean Sins and Incubus Dreams.
• Anita mentions that Jean-Claude has bound a few of Malcolm’s vampires to his own service, but there is no apparent resolution of the threat presented by the remainder of his vampires, none of whom are blood oathed to anyone.
• Anita does not appear to have made any progress on her hunt for Vittorio and his vampires.
• Although The Mother of Darkness continues to make threats, it remains to be seen when she will actually awake, or what will become of Belle Morte’s challenge for council leadership.
• Anita has now promised to sleep with Thea’s son in an attempt to raise his powers as a siren.
• Although Anita has sent Haven back to Chicago, she nevertheless needs to select a lion to match with her inner lioness, and any lion of sufficient power to match her may threaten Joseph’shold on his pride.
• Although Anita suspects she is now a pan-were, she has not yet shifted form, and doesn’t know if she will assume the form of a single animal, all the species with which she is infected, or none of them. In addition, blood tests show that Anita has an “unknown strain” of lycanthropy, which she has not yet identified.

Characters in Danse Macabre

Major characters

• Anita Blake: Anita continues her acceptance of her supernatural powers and unusual lifestyle. In particular, Anita accepts that the ardeur may have shaped Micah’s, Nathaniel’s, and her personalities to make them more compatible partners for one another. Anita also seems only momentarily concerned by the discoveries that she may be a shape-shifter or that her roles as a succubus and as Regina of the local were-lion pride may require her to take on several new lovers. In her personal life, while she continues to resist the idea of permitting her lovers (other than Richard) to take female lovers in addition to her, Anita begins to accept the idea of her lovers taking other male lovers, particularly in the case of Jean-Claude and Asher.
• Jean-Claude: After several books in which he struggled to maintain his hold as Master of St. Louis, Jean-Claude appears to have reached a position of relative comfort. He has now assembled a formidable group of master vampires, and, through Anita and Richard, enjoys good relations with most of the city’s lycanthropes. Personally, his relationship with Asher is at its best in centuries, while Anita appears to have largely accepted her role as his human servant and embraced the ardeur. He and Anita block two challenges from Augustine relatively easily and may have bent Augustine to their will by addicting him to their combined ardeur. Jean-Claude’s major remaining problems appear to be his relationship with Richard, who struggles against the idea of a closer political or personal relationship with Jean-Claude, and the possibility of a challenge by the Vampire Council, the Mother of Darkness, or an alliance of other City Masters threatened by Jean-Claude and Anita’s rapidly growing power.
• Richard: Hamilton continues to develop Richard’s relationships with Anita and Jean-Claude and his acceptance of his own supernatural nature, although the development in each area continues to lag far behind Anita’s parallel journey. As usual, Richard alternates violently between deep resentment of Anita and Jean-Claude and acceptance of his relationship with each of them, but he appears to be accepting his relationships and his supernatural nature, albeit more slowly than Anita. Although he continues to resent both of them, and to search for a permanent girlfriend to replace Anita, Richard largely accepts that he is part of the triumvirate. While he continues to hope that Anita will “settle down” with him alone, he appears willing to accept his and Anita’s sexual relationship until something better comes along.
• Jason: Jason has only a minor role in this novel, largely continuing to support his friends Anita and Nathaniel. In addition, he has apparently developed into one of Anita’s occasional sex partners, and reports that he has “checked out” one of the visitors.
• Micah: Michah’s role in this novel is also fairly minimal. Although Micah accompanies Anita for many of the events of the novel, his major plot contributions are as one of Anita’s sex partners and as a focus for Richard’s jealousy. Like Nathaniel, Micah is very supportive of whatever choice Anita makes when she believes she might be pregnant, and, like Nathaniel, Micah appears unconcerned by the possibility that the ardeur has shaped his personality to meet Anita’s needs.
• Nathaniel: Danse Macabre shows Nathaniel’s ongoing maturation. Either as a result of his growing older, his triumvirate with Anita and Damian, or both, Nathaniel has developed into a more mature and less needy person than in earlier novels. According to Anita, Nathaniel has grown taller, and we see him challenge Ronnie, Richard, and Anita’s various suitors, an action that would be unthinkable when the character was first introduced.
• Asher: Danse Macabre heightens Asher’s apparent role as representative of the darker sides of Anita’s sexual awakening. Anita accepts that she has become addicted to the limitless pleasure that Asher can bring, and both Anita and Asher accept, for the first time, that Anita’s love for Asher is real and not simply an artifact of her connection with Jean-Claude. However, loving Asher comes with a price for Anita, both emotional, as she surrenders her self-control more completely than she has with any of her other lovers, and physical, as Anita and Asher lose control under the force of their combined powers, nearly killing Anita. In addition, Asher continues to come into his own power as a master vampire, gaining the power to call hyenas and werehyenas.
• Damian: Damian continues to be one of the more passive of Anita’s primary harem. His major roles in Danse Macabre seem to be appearing when Anita needs to share his self-control and occasionally threatening to die unless Anita has sex to generate more power to sustain him.

Other characters

Recurring characters include:

• Ronnie: Ronnie continues her fight with Anita, which has been resolving, then flaring up, for the last few novels. Under questioning from Anita and Nathaniel, Ronnie ultimately admits that she is scared of commitment with Louis, and jealous of Anita’s harem.

• Requiem: Requiem ends up hooked on the ardeur, a problem which is continually addressed throughout the book.

• Meng Die: In this novel, Hamilton develops Meng Die’s character, revealing that (1) Meng Die does not possess any form of the ardeur; (2) she is powerful and ambitious enough that her last master was glad to see her go, rather than risk the chance that Meng Die would depose him; and (3) that Meng Die is deeply resentful of Anita because most or all of Meng Die’s lovers prefer Anita to her. Although Meng Die ends the novel promising not to kill anyone that evening, Hamilton seems to be setting her up for later conflict with Jean-Claude or Anita.

• Graham: A werewolf of Richard’s pack who wants to be one of the people Anita feeds off of.

• Claudia: In this novel, Claudia shows herself to be Anita’s most reliable bodyguard, as well as one of the few women with whom Anita can discuss her various problems.

• Fredo:

• Joseph: Rex of the St. Louis Pride (Were-lion Leader)

• Valentina:

• Wicked:

• Truth:

Non-recurring characters include:

• London: A master vampire of Bella Morte’s line that recently moved to St. Louis often called “The Dark Knight”. He can feed the ardeur every two hours, making him a potential potent Pomme de Sang, but as drawback he becomes addicted to the ardeur. London made a deal with Jean-Claude to protect him from his addiction, and Belle Morte who had used it against him.
• Elinore:
• Samuel: Master of Cape Cod; Animal to call is mermaids.
• Leucothea: “Thea” is a siren, and is Samuel’s wife.
• Sampson: Samuel and Thea’s oldest son.
• Thomas: One of Samuel and Thea’s twin sons.
• Cristof: One of Samuel and Thea’s twin sons.
• Augustine: Master of the City of Chicago; Craves the ardeur; animal to calls are lions
• Pierce: Under command of Augustine. werelion
• Merlin: Unofficially theMerlin of urban legend. A very powerful master vampire created by Marmee Noir who runs a ballet tour of other vampires. Animal to call: birds
• Adonis: Part of Merlin’s travelling dance troupe.

Trivia/notes

• Danse Macabre is the first Anita Blake novel in which no one dies.

Critical reception

The critical reception of Danse Macabre has been mixed.

• Robert Folsom of the Kansas City Star wrote a critical review, stating:

. . . after 13 erotically charged books, boredom has reared its ugly head for the 14th novel in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, “Danse Macabre” (Berkley; $25.95), as eroticism becomes mere description . . .

So the stage is set for intrigue. Yet the words and actions Hamilton has her characters say and do seem more of a writing exercise than elements of true portrayal.^[1]

• In contrast, a Denver Post review took a more positive view of the eroticism in Hamilton’s work. Although the Post review noted that “[t]hose looking for mystery and mayhem on this Anita adventure are out of luck” and “it will be interesting to see how long Hamilton can sustain a large audience while avoiding the sort of solid plots that were characteristic of her earlier novels,” the review was largely positive, writing that “the main attraction of the Anita Blake novels in the past five years has been their erotic novelty,” and “[f]ew, if any, mainstream novels delve so deeply into pure, unadulterated erotica.”^[2]

Release details

UK cover 2006

References

1. ^Folsom, Robert. “‘Danse Macabre’ by Laurell K. Hamilton; ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ by Scott Lynch”, Kansas City Star, 2006-07-17.
2. ^ Shindler, Dorman T. “7th Anita Blake novel builds on erotic aura”, Denver Post, 2006-08-20, p. F13. ISSN 19302193.

External links

• Chapters One-Three via Laurellkhamilton.org
• Official Site
• Official Blog

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre_%28novel%29“

15. The Harlequin

Plot introduction

AnitaBlake is about to face the challenge of her life. Into her world–a world already overflowing with power–have come creatures so feared that powerful, centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names. It is forbidden to speak of The Harlequin unless you’ve been contacted. And to be contacted by The Harlequin can mean three things. It can mean that they’re watching, or that they’re tormenting, or that they’re going to kill you. The Harlequin belong to Marmée Noire, the Mother of Darkness, a figure so old, it’s not known whether she’s a vampire, a lycanthrope or something else.

Long-time rivals for Anita’s affections, Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City, and Richard Zeeman, Ulfric of the local werewolf pack, will need to become allies. Wereleopards Nathaniel and Micah will have to step up their support. And then there’s Edward. In this situation, Anita knows that she needs to call the one man who has always been there for her, but he responds in a way that she didn’t anticipate.

Explanation of the title

The book is named after the central adversaries, a cadre of vampires called ‘the Harlequin’ that exist to police and punish vampire leaders who violate various rules (e.g., Malcolm’s resistance to the blood oath). This is one of the few Anita Blake books that is not named after a place.

Plot summary

The events of The Harlequin take place one week after the events of Danse Macabre

The Harlequin shows Anita and Jean Claude coping with a threat from Vampire Council enforcers. Desperate, Anita calls Edward for assistance. Edward arrives the same day, bringing Olaf and Peter (now 16), who we last saw in Obsidian Butterfly.

The Harlequin exists to police and punish vampire leaders who violate various rules, such as Malcolm’s resistance to the blood oath. It was formed by the Mother of All Darkness, modeled in style on the Commedia dell’arte and by action on the wild hunt. It is comprised of very old and powerful vampires who are capable of not just manipulating the behaviors and emotions of humans or younger vampires and lycanthropes, but of Jean-Claude, Anita, and Richard. Under this influence, Richard and Jean-Claude nearly kill each other, and Anita must also be repeatedly resuscitated. Anita keeps them alive by feeding on first Rafael (and through him, all the wererats in the city); Belle Morte; and later, all the swanmanes in the US via Donovan. Anita’s second triumvirate also comes through, with Nathaniel and Damien “eating for five” so as to provide healing energy to Anita — and the others through her.

However, The Harlequin appears not to be following its own rules, so by vampire law Jean Claude’s people can strike back. Edward doesn’t actually kill a Harlequin, Anita does through a psychic link that she accidentally creates while trying to remove a sort of vampire spell that one of the Harlequin has put on her in order to keep track of her and Jean Claude’s etc. movements. They subsequently end up killing the “human servant” of that vampire after Anita has fed on Donovan the king of the swan manes. They recover in time to face off with the remaining members in Malcolm’s Church of Eternal Life. They not only succeed, but determine that the Harlequin members were planning to take over Jean-Claude’s territory and not operating on official Council orders.

In the book Anita almost allows to Mother of Darkness to become a full flesh being by allowing her anger to fester.

Anita also leaves her former allies, the werelions, to potential death. At a point where Anita and many of her other allies were injured, she demanded sex from the werelion Rex Joseph so that she could gain the power to heal. The Rex refused because he is married and values being faithful to his wife. In a scene reminiscent of The Godfather series, Anita decides that this is a betrayal of their alliance and decides to abandon Joseph.

Characters in Danse Macabre

Major characters

• Anita Blake
• Jean-Claude
• Richard
• Asher
• Micah
• Damian
• Nathaniel
• Requiem

Other characters

Recurring characters include:

• Malcolm
• Wicked
• Truth

External links

• Chapters One and Six via Laurellkhamilton.org
• Official Site
• Official Blog

This article about a horror novel is a stub. You can hlp Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Harlequin_%28novel%29 “

16. Blood Noir

Plot introduction

Jason Schuyler’s father is dying of cancer. Throughout his childhood Jason has never measured up to his father’s expectations, but Jason feels like he should at least try to say goodbye. For moral support, Anita goes with him back to his hometown near Asheville, North Carolina. There they meet with a handful of old girlfriends and a handful of new trouble. Trouble that comes in the form of a mistaken identity and media coverage, plus an ancient trouble that is still desiring Anita.

Plot summary

Blood Noir appears to take place a short time after The Harlequin however it is not noted exactly how much time has lapsed. There are a few main themes in the novel, which are mostly resolved by the end.

• In Jason’s hometown, one of his ancestors had more than his fair share of offspring. Hence, Jason’s features are repeated in various cousins and other relatives. During highschool Jason was always confused with two of his cousins who happen to be twins. Keith Summerland used the confusion to his benefit a few times, tricking people to believe he was Jason or letting Jason get the beating for Keith’s deeds.
  • As soon as Jean-Claude’s private jet lands in South Carolina, Jason is confused for Keith. The local and national media is interested in Keith Summerland because he is getting married and his father who is currently a governor is thinking of running for the Presidency. Meanwhile, Jason’s father has been given only weeks to live, so time is of the essence. In addition, Jason has rented a hotel room in the same location that Keith is supposed to stay in and where the bridal party is taking place.
  • Keith Summerland is in trouble again, he’s fallen for a vampire and would rather marry her than the girl his father wants to marry him to. However, the vampire is already married and her husband does not take kindly to Keith trying to take his bride.
• In The HarlequinAnita was given a charm that is supposed to keep Marmee Noir away. When Anita meets a tiger that calls to one of the tigers inside her, the charm fails or perhaps the Mother of Darkness over powers it. Previous books have had Anita give her beast to someone else since she cannot shift with a fair amount of success, however Jason would only be able to help Anita if her inner wolf was giving her trouble. Marmee Noir uses Anita to send out a call to every unattached tiger in the nation.
  • Specifically, two tigers in the area come to Anita, and Jason, instantly and are essentially raped by her for two days. One is Crispin from Las Vegas (who broaches the rape issue), a stripper and the other is Alexander Pinn, who is a closeted reporter. Crispin is from a white tiger clan, while Alex is from a red tiger clan.
  • Once again, Anita could be pregnant. Jason tells the possibily to be tiger-daddies that the would-be baby is probably his and they then allow her to get a morning after pill. Otherwise, either tiger would have happily married and taken Anita back to his clan. Crispin appears to be been rolled by Anita and is rather heart broken when she sends him away, while Alex had a harder time fighting Anita’s call.
  • Marmee Noir may be thousands of miles physically from Anita, but she can still reach out and touch the necromancer. When Anita loses consciousness, Marmee Noir wakes her and slashes her shirt open despite being so far away. However, she does not reveal why she is so interested in Anita. It could be that she wants Anita for her own human servant, as other Masters of the City may as well. When the link between Anita and Jean-Claude is broken, they believe that Anita may have been marked by Marmee Noir, but once Anita reclaims her anger from Richard the link is back. Marmee Noir cannot understand Anita’s rage because it belongs to Anita and was not passed down from her to any of Marmee Noir’s vampire descendants.
• The last theme is the desire to be “normal,” which most of the main characters admit to wanting. Normal as in what society says most humans want, find a true love, meet the family, get married, have kids, live happily ever after. Unfortunately for Anita, her life is anything but normal, but she’s the only one who appears to accept that. When Jason takes Anita home to meet his family, Jean-Claude and Micah both express the desire to do that as well.
  • Jean-Claude is jealous because while he would want Anita to meet his family, they have all died so long ago that no one knows him from when he was human. Anita tells him that she has in a sense met his mother, she’s in some sense met Belle Morte and he replies that she is not ‘his people.’ Belle Morte may be the head of Jean-Claude’s bloodline but she is not the matriach of his family.
  • Micah broke his ties with his family to keep them safe. When Chimera was alive, he would use family against the members of his pard. With Chimera dead, Micah expresses the desire to introduce Anita to his family. However, Nathaniel is also a part of Anita’s and Micah’s life which leaves Micah uncertain if all three of them should visit. Nathaniel’s role in their life is not so clear and simple nor “normal” as the roles of ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend.’
  • Richard also wants his life to be normal, he wants Anita to be his wife and to live essentially behind a white picket fence. They have quarreled about this many times in many books. When he finds Anita has gained two more lovers to her list or bed post, Richard is distressed. Once Anita takes away her rage from him, he gains a new talent. Unfortunately, there is a learning curve to it and at first he tries to use it against her until Jason calls him on it and then Richard simply leaves Anita alone.
  • Jason’s desire to be normal shows in trying to appease his father one last time. To try and convince him that Anita is his girlfriend is the least he can do, while he still has time left to say goodbye to his father. A media frenzy of poor timing and rumors will not stop him in visiting his abusive father in the hopes for that one perfect moment of acceptance that he never had when he was growing up. Jason had no desire for athetics and his choice of theatre was not what his father wanted for him. In fact, nearly everything Jason has tried to do to please his father has failed. It is not until the end of the book, when Jason is nearly taken away from his family that Franklin Schuyler realizes exactly how much Jason means to him.

Unresolved plotlines

Once again, the events in this book happen in less than four days’ time and hence many of the plotlines that were brought up in previous books were not mentioned.

• While Perdy and Jason have broken up, there is no other mention of the merfolk beyond Richard commenting that Jason breaking up with her to sleep with Anita broke her heart.
• As with Danse Macabre various crimes that Anita promised to investigate have not been mentioned nor concluded. Nor has there been any mention about Dolph or any other RPIT members, like Larry Kirkland.
• While Marmee Noir can control large cats, there was no comment on Anita’s lionness or if Haven will be her animal to call since she appears to be collecting them for every inner beast. Nor was there a mention for the rats or the swans that she has come in contact with repeatedly, if they will be an inner beast as well.
• In addition, Anita is still no closer to finding out what Marmee Noir really wants from her. If the Mother of All Darkness merely wanted a human servant, why did she summon the other tigers to sleep with Anita?
• The sexual relationship between Asher and Jean-Claude in the previous book has vanished. Now Anita’s involvement with them both has backshifted to attempting three-person dates, as in Cerulean Sins.

Characters in Blood Noir

Major characters

• Anita Blake
• Jason
• Jean-Claude
• Richard: When Anita loses her tie to Jean-Claude, Richard comes to South Carolina to try and help. Unfortunately, after seeing that Anita has added to her list of lovers, Richard is not pleased. He releases the anger that he gained from her when Jean-Claude connected them in the triumvirate and Anita realizes she can either fight it or embrace it. By the end of the book, Richard is acting and feeling more like he did when he first met Anita. However, by potentially taking away the anger, Anita may have given him something else in return.
• Micah: Micah is away from St. Louis, checking out a new leopard who wants to join his and Anita’s pard. Anita calls him to tell him about going with Jason to South Carolina. Micah expresses that he too, would like to bring Anita to his estrangled family as well, someday.
• Nathaniel: Nathaniel plays a role in the beginning of the book only, for he is the one who offered Anita to Jason for moral support.

Other characters

(So far) Recurring characters include:

• Jamil and Shang-Da: These two werewolves go with Richard to visit Anita in South Carolina.
• Irving: Jason and Anita enroll Irving’s help as a news reporter to try and take back the rumor that Anita left Jean-Claude for Jason. Originally, Irving was thrilled to have an insider’s scoop on Jean-Claude and other Anita related topics, but people were being to wonder how he was so close to it all. Therefore Anita left him out of it, rather abruptly apparently.

It is unknown if these characters will make recurring appearances:

• Alex Pinn - a tiger with red stripes, who is a closeted news reporter.
• Crispin - a white tiger from Las Vegas.

External links

• Chapters One and Two via Laurellkhamilton.org
• Official Site
• Official Blog

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Noir_%28novel%29 “

Undead characters of Anita Blake:

Vampire Hunter

This is an alphabetical listing of undead characters in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels.

Contents 1 St. Louis vampires 1.1 Aubrey 1.2 Asher 1.3 Bartolome 1.4 Buzz 1.5 Damian 1.6 Dead Dave 1.7 Gretchen/Gretel 1.8 Hannah 1.9 Jean-Claude 1.10 Liv 1.11 London 1.12 Malcolm 1.13 Meng Die 1.14 Nikolaos 1.15 Primo 1.16 Requiem 1.17 Robert 1.18 Truth 1.19 Valentina 1.20 Valentine 1.21 Wicked 1.22 Willie McCoy 1.23 Yasmeen 2 The Vampire Council and their followers 3 Branson vampires 4 Myerton vampires 5 New Mexico vampires 6 Other vampires 7 Other 7.1 Zachary 8 See also

St. Louis vampires

Aubrey

Centuries old but not a master, Aubrey was a very powerful lieutenant of Nikolaos. Aubrey was partially insane as a result of punishments received from Nikolaos. At her orders, he blackmailed Anita by enthralling (”deep rolling”) and threatening to kill Anita’s friend Catherine. Ultimately, Anita killed Aubrey with a silver-loaded shotgun.

Asher

Asher is a Master Vampire of Belle Morte’s line, and the lover of Jean-Claude and Anita Blake. Asher was formerly part of a menage-a-trois with Jean-Claude and Asher’s human servant Julianna, until the Church burned Julianna at the stake as a witch and tried to “burn the devil” out of Asher with holy water in a form of Chinese water torture. The holy water left Asher badly scarred, and for many years he blamed Jean-Claude for rescuing him too late, and for failing to save Julianna.

Anita was able to see beyond the terrible scarring and came to love him, overcoming Asher’s hatred for Jean-Claude (though Asher still carries heavy emotional baggage). Asher is now Jean-Claude’s second-in-command. His main vampiric power is fascination: people who are caught by his gaze are fascinated by him and can’t look away; Belle Morte said people he rolls completely become “love-besotted fools” and follow him around; and his bite is orgasmic, and his victim can have flashbacks of the orgasm hours or days later. Asher acquired Hyena as animal to call in Danse Macabre.

Bartolome

Formerly heir to a huge fortune, Bartolome is of Belle Morte’s bloodline and a child vampire around the age of 12 or 13. At the end of Cerulean Sins, he chose to stay to help undo the damage he and Valentina inflicted on Gregory and Stephen thanks to Musette. For the most part, he is rather well-adjusted given the propensity of prepubescent vampires to go insane over time. He speaks fluent Spanish and English. He came along with Musette to St. Louis purely out of boredom.

Buzz

“Buzz the vampire” is a heavily muscled vampire bouncer at Guilty Pleasures. Approximately 20 years dead, Buzz does not have the inhuman mannerisms of older vampires. He typically guards the door in a t-shirt, regardless of weather conditions and enjoys flashing his fangs.

Damian

Damian is a green eyed, red haired Viking vampire. Through a series of accidents and emergencies, he became Anita’s vampire servant (similar to the role of a vampire’s human servant) and eventual lover, and as Anita’s vampire servant, Damian became a member of Anita’s second triumvirate with Nathaniel.

Damian was made by “She who must not be named” (later revealed to be Morvoren/Nemhain). He tends to have a calming effect on Anita, as shown in Cerulean Sins, because he was taught by she-who-made-him that her will was all important. His appearance changed slightly in Incubus Dreams, just enough to make him “breathtakingly” beautiful. Approximately 1000 years old, Damian will never be a master vampire, but because of the additional power of Anita and Nathaniel, he can physically walk in daylight—although doing so tends to drive him into a fear-induced insanity. This comes from witnessing Perrin, one of his Viking comrades who was also turned into a vampire, burst into flames from walking in the sunlight while he and the aforementioned Viking were in the “care” of Morvoren.

Damian lives in Anita’s basement and works at Danse Macabre. He became slightly insane when Anita left St. Louis for six months, without her magic to control him or to make his heart beat.

Dead Dave

Dave is an ex-cop who was kicked off the force after he became a vampire and who now owns a bar called “Dead Dave’s”. Though mad at the police for kicking him off the force, Dave sells and gives information to Anita to aid her investigations.

Gretchen/Gretel

Jean-Claude made Gretchen a vampire almost 200 years ago. Pale, with wavy blond hair falling near to her waist, Gretchen is hopelessly in love with Jean-Claude in every sense of the word, and erroneously sees Anita as the primary obstacle to his love. Although she “has not used that name in 100 years”, Gretchen was originally named Gretel, and Jean-Claude still at times calls her by that name. A master vampire, she has strong mental powers, a resistance to silver, and the power of flight.

In The Lunatic Cafe, Gretchen attacks Anita, and as punishment, Jean-Claude reduces her to a skeletal state (withdrawing her animating force, as her creator) and confines her to her coffin for almost three years. In Narcissus in Chains, Anita learns that Gretchen is still confined and forces Jean-Claude to free her. However, Gretchen still hates Anita for coming between her and Jean Claude, and in Cerulean Sins, Anita states that Gretchen’s confinement has driven her “even crazier” than she was before.

Hannah

Hannah is the vampiric lady love of Willie McCoy. Willie refers to her as Angel Fangs. Hannah also gets possessed by the Traveler when Vampire Council members are in town. Hamilton erroneously called her “Candy” in “The Harlequin”; she later wrote in her blog that Candy had been Hannah’s original name during the first draft of Burnt Offerings, and that the mistake will be corrected for the paperback edition of the book.

Jean-Claude

Master of the City of St Louis, Jean-Claude is the lover of Anita Blake. He is part of the triumvirate consisting of Anita Blake and Ulfric of the St. Louis werewolves, Richard Zeeman. He is what in earlier times would be called an incubus. He carries the ardeur, which is like a sexual vampirism. He passed this onto Anita.

Liv

A large Nordic vampire with bodybuilder muscles who pledged her loyalty to Jean-Claude when he became Master of the City of St. Louis. Jealous of Jean-Claude’s affection for Anita, Liv later betrays him and his followers to the Traveler, who had promised her the ability to kill or at least dominate Anita. Anita was only minorly affected but punished Liv with final death for her betrayal and for her role in Padma’s abuses of several local werecreatures.

London

A master vampire of Belle Morte’s line that recently moved to St. Louis; often called “The Dark Knight”. He can feed the ardeur every two hours, which makes him a potential potent pomme de sang, but the drawback is that he becomes addicted to the ardeur. London made a deal with Jean-Claude to protect him from his addiction (and Belle Morte, who had used it against him), but he later becomes addicted to Anita’s ardeur.

Malcolm

A powerful master vampire, Malcolm is Head of the Church of Eternal Life in St. Louis, where being a permanent member means you will live forever (stakes, fire, and crosses aside). Anita is not altogether happy with this organization, since it tends to create plenty of emotionally messed-up vampires (of which she doesn’t really need more). He is described by Anita to be an “undead Billy Graham.” Malcolm has not required blood-oaths of the vampires under him, hence he has no control over them except their words of obedience, which provides no assurance the vampires will not become dangerous predators.

Unfortunately, other branches of the Church nation-wide have likewise not blood-oathed their members. Worse yet, Incubus Dreams reveals the Church is holding back on teaching its vampires, in effect not showing the members how to be vampires to their full potential or explaining the effects of what they can now do. For example, the Church considers drinking from the inner thigh “too sexual” and does not explain how to do so without the donor bleeding to death.

Unlike many of the Church’s members, Malcolm himself is aware of his vampire powers, and Anita knows of two: He can make himself appear to be more handsome than he is, and he is able to read the minds of anyone he shakes hands with.

Unlike most vampires in the series, Malcolm is extremely religious; he says that being undead has not changed his beliefs. When threatened by the Harlequin, he asks Anita to find a priest to hear his confession, so he can die absolved.

Meng Die

Meng Die is short, delicate, and described by Anita as resembling a “China doll.” She typically dresses in skin-tight leather. Originally turned by Jean-Claude himself, Meng Die is an extremely powerful master, an accomplished fighter, and like Jean-Claude himself can call wolves. Unlike many of the master vampires of Belle Morte’s bloodline, Meng Die does not appear to possess any variant of the ardeur. Although she is sexually accomplished, she does not have any particular abilities related to love or lust.

Meng Die is powerful enough to become a master of a city in her own right, and aggressive enough that her former master was happy to “loan” her to Jean-Claude, thereby reducing the risk that she would try to seize her former master’s territory for herself. Jean-Claude originally invites her to visit his territory in order to increase his strength and defend his territory against challengers. However, once Jean-Claude acquires other, less difficult master vampires, he begins to regret inviting Meng Die into his retinue, as her power, aggression and sexual jealousy of Anita make her one of the most difficult of his vampires to control.

Meng Die particularly resents Anita because one of her lovers, Requiem has left her, in order to increase his chances of forming a relationship with Anita. She attempts to kill him with a silver knife and injures him in the process. Afterward, she is locked into a coffin bound with crosses and chains. She cracks the coffin with a power spike from Jean Claude and is finally released in Danse Macabre.

Nikolaos

The master of the city in Guilty Pleasures and more than 1000 years old, Nikolaos has the appearance of a young girl about 12 (and sounds like Shirley Temple when not angry). Based on the description, Nikolaos has some of the traits of what Hamilton later describes as a nighthag - a vampire that could draw power from fear, but she lacks the tell tale sign of decomposing on her victims during sex and/or feedings. Her mental and physical strength are formidable. Nikolaos has a variety of master-level abilities, including the ability to call rats and wererats, to fly, and to wake during the day. Anita kills Nikolaos in Guilty Pleasures, making Jean-Claude master of the city.

Primo

With brute strength, and being a powerful vampire who formerly looked to The Dragon as his mistress, Primo works under Buzz at Guilty Pleasures and repeatedly lets people in who are not supposed to be allowed, causing fights until Jean-Claude and Anita intervene. He is almost powerful enough to beat Jean-Claude, until Anita steps in and blood-oaths him. He wants to be master of the city, but is not powerful enough. Seems to be able to feed off violence, like Jean-Claude feeds on sex. Also caused Anita “harm from a distance”. He can rapidly heal fatal wounds by drinking the blood of a preternatral creature.

Requiem

Jean-Claude’s third in command, Requiem is a British-born vampire that Belle Morte offered to buy from his master to complete her blue-eyed trio: Jean-Claude the Darkest, Asher the Lightest, and Requiem the Brightest-eyed. He has the power to raise lust—straight lust—similar to Jean-Claude’s ardeur (Anita describes his power as “like hours of really good foreplay packed into seconds”). However, Requiem is always fiercely polite and sees taking advantage of this power as rape, refusing to use it uninvited. He has black hair and a trimmed mustache. His name comes from being “poetic, but damn depressing”.

Robert

A beautiful blond, Robert is first introduced as one of the strippers at Guilty Pleasures, and later is promoted to its manager. Although a century old, Robert is essentially a coward, and repeatedly backs down in confrontations with Jean-Claude’s enemies.

Robert marries Monica Vespucci and they are able to conceive a child. Shortly thereafter, he is killed by Sabin’s triumvirate as part of a plot to heal Sabin.

Truth

Brother of Wicked, Truth is nearly killed trying to capture a fleeing vampire from the Church of Eternal Life on Anita’s command. He is blood oathed by Anita. With Wicked, he helped to slay his entire bloodline, and together he and his brother have traveled alone for years. Noted warriors, the brothers are called “The Wicked Truth.”

Valentina

Child vampire brought over by a vampire pedophile, Valentina is Musette’s helper and an expert torturer. She is one of the few who has seen Marmee Noir in person. Pain is her substitute for sex because she is a small child. Jean-Claude describes her as disturbed, and she is fond of trying to break strangers. She is not without a sense of honor, however, and despises child molesters; along with Bartolome, she chooses to stay to undo the damage they did to Stephen and Gregory. Anita strongly suspects she stayed also because she is afraid of Marmee Noir. Valentina is also of Belle Morte’s bloodline, and Belle refers to her as “Petite Morte” - Little Death.

Valentine

A vampire with dozens of human kills, Valentine was the only vampire survivor of an earlier fight between his nest of vampires and Anita, Manny, and Edward. During that fight, Anita received the scars she possessed at the beginning of Guilty Pleasures, and Valentine’s face was scarred by holy water. Valentine promised to kill Anita when Anita’s work for Nikolaos was completed, but was himself killed by Edward.

Wicked

Brother to Truth, Wicked is a vampire of considerable power. Together with his brother, he was able to kill his entire bloodline after their Sourdre de Sang went insane and the vampires of their line began randomly killing people. The council voted on whether or not to kill Wicked and Truth also, with Belle Morte actually voting to save them, but the brothers were left masterless, which weakened them, until Incubus Dreams, when Anita binds them to Jean-Claude. Wicked and Truth (”The Wicked Truth”) are considered among the greatest of all vampire warriors.

Although in Incubus Dreams it is stated that Wicked is not a master, in a later book, Danse Macabre, he is a Master Vampire. It is unclear whether this is a continuity error, or if being masterless had reduced his power enough that he was no longer a master vampire.

Willie McCoy

Willie is a small-time hood turned vampire. The first vampire friend of Anita’s, he is one of only two or three vampires Anita has known before and after being turned. Willie is dating the vampire Hannah. He manages “The Laughing Corpse” for Jean-Claude. Willie also gets possessed by the Traveler when Vampire Council members are in town.

Yasmeen

An “exotic” looking master vampire with dark skin and hair, Yasmeen and her human servant, Marguerite, are Jean-Claude’s allies during the events of Circus of the Damned. Yasmeen is difficult to control and threatens Anita and Larry whenever she has the opportunity. She also enjoys making Marguerite jealous. She gets torn apart by Alejandro in the final battle of that novel.

The Vampire Council and their followers

Branson vampires

Sometime after Jean-Claude’s ascension to Master of St. Louis (after Guilty Pleasures and before the events in Bloody Bones), the Vampire Council decided that Branson, Missouri had become sufficiently populous to split off from Jean-Claude’s territory and support its own group of vampires. They promised Jean-Claude that they would appoint a vampire of equal or lesser power to himself, and permitted Seraphinaand her retinue to take up residence in Branson.

Myerton vampires

The apparently fictional city of Myerton, Tennessee served as the setting for Blue Moon, the eighth novel in the Anita Blake series.

New Mexico vampires

In Obsidian Butterfly, Anita meets a number of vampires based in the vicinity of Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Other

Zachary

Zachary is a former animator who returned from the dead as the leader of a pack of ghouls. He was able to remain ‘alive’ and to maintain a human appearance by sacrificing vampires to charge a magical gris-gris. Zachary was killed when Anita destroyed the enchantment sustaining him (Guilty Pleasures).

See also

• Human characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Lycanthrope characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Other characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Mythology of Anita Blake:Vampire Hunter

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undead_characters_of_Anita_Blake:_Vampire_Hunter “

Human characters of Anita Blake:

Vampire Hunter

This is an alphabetical listing of significant human characters in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels. Non-recurring characters can be found in the article about the novel in which they featured.

Contents [hide] 1 Major characters 1.1 Anita Blake 1.2 Edward (aka Death aka The Undertaker aka Ted (Theodore) Forrester) 2 Animators, Inc. 2.1 Bert Vaughn 2.2 Charles Montgomery 2.3 Jamison Clarke 2.4 John Burke 2.5 Lawrence Kirkland 2.6 Manny (Manuel) Rodriguez 2.7 Veronica “Ronnie” Sims 3 Regional Preternatural Investigative Team (RPIT) 3.1 Clive Perry 3.2 Rudolph “Dolph” Storr 3.3 Tammy Reynolds 3.4 Zerbrowski 3.5 Katie Zerbrowski 4 Other 4.1 Anthony Dietrich 4.2 Special Agent Bradley Bradford 4.3 Bernardo Spotted-Horse 4.4 Catherine Maison-Gillette 4.5 Charlotte Zeeman 4.6 Daniel Zeeman 4.7 Dominga Salvador (aka The Señora) 4.8 Harley 4.9 Luther 4.10 Marianne 4.11 Monica Vespucci 4.12 Olaf (aka Otto Jefferies) 5 See also

Major characters

Anita Blake

Anita Blake is the title character of the series: animator, vampire executioner and necromancer.

Edward (aka Death aka The Undertaker aka Ted (Theodore) Forrester)

Edward is 5′9″ with blond hair and blue eyes. Anita describes Edward as “not an imposing man”, appearance-wise. She also describes his eyes - “as cold and as distant as wintery skies”. A hitman, he now specializes in assassinating supernatural targets, because humans were too easy. He particularly hunts vampires and lycanthropes, and taught Anita most of her combat skills. Anita considers herself to be possibly Edward’s only true friend.

Edward is an extremely dangerous man, as Anita describes him. He is known to the monsters as Death, seemingly because he has had so many kills. Edward is a gun freak, knowing a lot about every brand of gun. As Anita says, “He carries more firepower than Rambo”. He has given Anita several “toys” (as he calls his weapons), at various times including a Mini-Uzi and a sawed-off shotgun, and she was envious of his custom Seecamp auto. He uses any sort of firepower, regardless of any innocent bystanders. Edward has been known to use a flamethrower on vampires. He also customises his bullets, filling the silver hollow points with holy water and mercury, sealed with wax.

Edward is a sociopath alongside Anita. Sociopathy plays a big part in the series. Between Anita and Edward’s relationships, they often talk about how effortlessly they can kill, without feeling anything, without caring for the ones they kill. Another topic that they openly discuss, have discussed, many times, is “who would be better”. Edward says that his greatest fantasy is to go against Anita, and see who is better. Edward claims to have dreamed about it. Anita can see the excitement in his eyes and believes him. Edward acts like he doesn’t really care about anything, but we see in Obsidian Butterfly he shoots through a whole gang of baddies, to save his girlfriend Donna’s children, Becca and Peter. “I always thought Edward killed emotionless, his eyes cold.” Anita said, in Obsidian Butterfly, “But when I looked into his baby blues, they were filled with fire. I had always thought Edward was scariest at his most cold. I was wrong. Edward the family man was downright terrifying.”

Edward leads a double life; Edward as an assassin is the true Edward (as far as we know). He has an alias, his only legal identity (as far as we know) called Ted Forrester. Ted is a licensed bounty hunter, and “good ol’ boy” operating out of Santa Fe; like Anita, he becomes “grandfathered” in as a Federal Marshall. Ted is engaged to a widow, Donna Parnell, with two kids, Peter and Becca (aged 14 and 6 in Obsidian Butterfly), not to mention the two maltese Peeka and Boo. He appears to have a close relationship with them, and Anita almost thinks that Edward could be in love. However, in The Harlequin, it is clear that Donna and Becca do not know “Edward”, only “Ted”. Anita is surprised to learn that Peter knows “Edward” - and wants to follow in Edward’s and Anita’s footsteps.

History: Edward’s past is shrouded in mystery, however we do know that he once worked and was trained by a man named Van Cleef, with the suggestion of a military connection. He is recognised by others who trained under Van Cleef who call him “The Undertaker” a name he apparently acquired due to having the highest kill count of any of Van Cleef’s trainees. Edward tells Anita that he was allowed to leave on Van Cleef’s troop on the condition that he never spoke about it.

According to Anita’s account in Guilty Pleasures, approximately two years before the start of the series, Edward and Anita collaborated in the hunt for Valentine and his nest of vampires. Ultimately, Edward used a flamethrower, burning a house down around himself and Anita. This story is told in a 2 issue comic book “The First Death.”

Animators, Inc.

Bert Vaughn

Bert is the founder and managing partner of Animators, Inc. Over 6 feet tall and built like a former athlete, Bert is an unscrupulous boss who is inclined to sign the animators up for almost any job if the price is right. He and Anita often clash over Bert’s choices of potential clients and jobs for Anita. As of Cerulean Sins Bert’s status was downgraded to business manager and most of the animators were upgraded to full partners, Anita says. The series doesn’t exactly explain why, but in previous books Anita had often thought about taking her business and clients away from Bert’s micromanaging.

Charles Montgomery

Charles is another animator who works for Bert Vaughn. Because he is built like an offensive lineman, Anita sometimes uses Charles as “muscle.” However, he is actually a gentle family man who would not hurt anyone.

Jamison Clarke

Jamison is an animator at Animators, Inc. He is a thin African-American with curly red hair and green eyes, who typically clashes with Anita over Anita’s side job as vampire executioner. Unlike Anita (int the beginning of the series), Jamison believes that vampires are essentially people, and disapproves of executing them without trial.

John Burke

Six feet tall with movie-star good looks and a white streak in his dark hair, John Burke is a powerful animator, vaundun priest, and vampire hunter. He was originally active in New Orleans, Louisiana, but moved to Saint Louis after his brother Peter (who could also raise zombies) was killed in that city. Burke also stated that the New Orleans police and he had had a “misunderstanding” over Burke’s involvement in a series of murders. After moving to Saint Louis he and Anita dated briefly, and he accepted a job at Animators, Inc. He can raise at least four zombies in a single night.

Lawrence “Larry” Kirkland

Five foot four and red-haired, Larry Kirkland reminds Anita of Howdy Doody. Larry first joined Animators, Inc. as a twenty year old co-op student and wants Anita to teach him to be a vampire hunter. Anita feels very protective towards Larry and doesn’t want to see him killed. Larry is very powerful, probably a necromancer in his own right. Later married to Tammy Reynolds of RPIT, who is expecting. Currently, he is a fully licensed vampire executioner and federal marshal.

Manny (Manuel) Rodriguez

An older animator/vampire executioner, Manny is an animator at Animators, Inc., and was Anita’s mentor, but is largely retired. Manny was present when he and Anita confronted Valentine’s nest, before the events of Guilty Pleasures.Before his marriage and conversion to Christianity Manny was a vaundun priest who was involved with Dominga Salvador.

Veronica “Ronnie” Sims

Veronica “Ronnie” Simms 5′9″ blond and is Anita’s best friend and her usual workout partner and confidante. A private investigator on retainer with Animators, Inc. She is not a “shooter” like Anita. Of late their relationship has broken down. Ronnie, once the one to encourage a sexually carefree attitude in Anita, is now monogamous while the initially prudish Anita currently sleeps with several different men a day. This puts a strain on their relationship, since Anita always thought she’d have one man of her own and has been often conflicted with having more than one to love or sleep with. While Ronnie is rather stunned at the realization of only having one real lover for the rest of her life, potentially, after hitting “triple digits” in bed partners before falling for biology professor and wererat Louie Fane.

Regional Preternatural Investigative Team (RPIT)

Clive Perry

An extremely polite member of RPIT. Anita has no idea what he did to get put on the squad (generally it’s a punishment).

Rudolph “Dolph” Storr

Six feet eight inches tall and built like a wrestler, “Dolph” Storr is head of the RPIT. He is normally extremely “by the book” and clean cut, with close cropped black hair and a neatly knotted tie and jacket, even at 4 a.m. crime scenes. At that point, Dolph was such an excellent police officer that Anita wondered what he had done to be assigned to RPIT, a low-status position within the police force.

Prior to the series and throughout the earlier books, Dolph was a friend and mentor to Anita. In the later books, Dolph and Anita’s relationship has become strained, in part because Anita no longer believes that all vampires and shapeshiftersare monsters, but Dolph still does, leading to distrust over Anita’s increasingly close relationships with the various vampire and lycanthrope communities in St. Louis. Their relationship has also been strained by Dolph’s personal situation; his son Darrin is married to a vampire (and possibly becoming one), and Dolph and his wife Lucille are grieving over the prospect of a life without grandchildren. (Dolph’s younger son, Paul, cannot have children). His wife’s name is Lucille.

In the later books of the series, Dolph’s personal problems and conflict with Anita appear to come to a head. Dolph manhandles Anita at a crime scene, attempts to have Jason Schuyler locked up in a secured facility simply for being a werewolf, and is temporarily relieved of duty. Although Dolph is now back on duty, he and Anita are approaching their relationship carefully.

Tammy Reynolds

A Christian witch, married to Larry Kirkland and expecting a child by him. She is the first detective witch and she chose to work with RPIT. Being a witch, she knows more about detailed spells or rituals than Anita does. Anita knows the basic ideas behind stuff, she says she took a few general classes in college. Tammy is five foot ten inches in height, somewhere around Anita’s age, but she still has an innocence like Larry does which is slowly being worn away with police work.

Zerbrowski

Another friend and member of the spook squad, Zerbrowski is the stereotypical rumpled, smart-alec, but highly competent detective and a loyal friend to Anita. He also makes wisecracks about Anita’s personal life and is a cheerful lech. Anita has told him he has very slight psychic abilities; but he is almost a nil. His car is what Anita calls “a toxic waste zone” and his appearance is usually mismatched and unruly. Anita, along with almost everyone else, is surprised that he got Katie to marry him.

Katie Zerbrowski

Zerbowski’s wife. Anita has often wondered how or why Katie married Zerbrowski in the first place. Anita also wonders how Katie allows Zerbrowski to leave the house looking so messy when she is so neat.

Other

Anthony Dietrich

Twins Stephen and Gregory’s father, Mr. Dietrich molested and pimped out his children at a young age and is one of the great traumas in their lives. He reappeared in St. Louis during the events of Cerulean Sins and has been trying to see his children, ignoring their restraining order against him, although he has not yet revealed the reason for his attempted contact.

Special Agent Bradley Bradford

Part of the Special Research Section, essentially the FBI’s version of RPIT. He works with Anita in Branson, Missouri, and in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and thinks very highly of her. In pulling her file to consider her for possible FBI work, Bradford inadvertently gets Anita tapped as a potential “Spook” - dangerous types hired by the FBI with blacked-out files.

Bernardo Spotted-Horse

Bodyguard, mercenary and assassin, associate to Edward. Not as psychotic as Olaf.

Catherine Maison-Gillette

One of Anita’s friends, Catherine serves mainly as a plot point in the first few novels, as Anita is forced to attend or prepare for her bachelorette party, wedding, Halloween party, etc. She is a criminal attorney at the same firm as Monica Vespucci.

Charlotte Zeeman

Richard’s mother, a small blond woman who looks younger than she actually is. She is very strong and commanding, despite her size, and all the Zeeman men love, adore, and fear her. She is now missing a finger, which Anita fully avenged.

Daniel Zeeman

One of Richard’s brothers, a few years younger than Richard and adorably cute. He has the nearly same hair as Richard, only slightly darker. Other physical features include a nose that didn’t quite heal right from being broken, naturally tan skin, high cheekbones, brown eyes, and a dimple in his chin. Daniel is, for a long time, the only member of Richard’s family to know that Richard is a werewolf.

Dominga Salvador (aka The Señora)

An evil voodoo or vaudun priestess, who Anita says is the most powerful one she has ever met, maybe the most powerful one in North America. Dominga was once also Manny’s lover and leader, for her he did many things he probably regrets now. She is in her early sixties, has pure white hair and black eyes. She found a way to make a perfect looking zombie that will not rot, by simply capturing the soul before it moves on, calling up the zombie, and putting the soul back inside the dead body. She hopes that Anita will join her, learn from her, but Anita refuses. She vanished while under investigation for crimes which would carry an automatic death penalty; the police suspect Anita of having killed Salvador, but have no evidence.

Harley

Psychotic but loyal back-up for Edward, Harley appears in The Killing Dance. Anita realizes he sees the world in a totally different way, and only listens to people he can “see”. After a metaphysical change in Anita, Harley no longer recognizes her (seeing “only monsters”) when Edward goes down and starts to kill everything he can see, including attemptin to kill Anita, who regretably kills him first. It is his death that makes Anita owe Edward a favor (which he calls in in Obsidian Butterfly).

Luther

Human bartender for Dead Dave, Luther works the day shift and frequently acts as Anita’s informant on Dave’s behalf. Luther is a grey-haired, very dark-skinned, chain smoker, and Anita describes him as fat, “but a solid fat like a kind of muscle”.

Marianne

The vargamorfor Verne’s clan in Tennessee, sort of a half pack witch, half pack therapist. She helps Anita with some of the magical issues that Anita faces, such as learning how to control the munin. Marianne is around 50ish in age and has white-blond hair, and a mechanical heart valve. Anita has called her a few times for help and received tarot readings instead, which are eerily accurate. She even called Anita once to give her a message from God. (Anita described this as He couldn’t speak to you, so he left a message on your machine)

Monica Vespucci

Vespucci is a lawyer at Anita’s friend Catherine’s law firm, and a vampire aficionado. She is one of the bridesmaids at Catherine’s wedding. In Guilty Pleasures, Vespucci is part of the plot to blackmail Anita into solving a series of vampire murders. Later, Vespucci marries Robert. After Robert is killed, Jean Claude promises that Monica and their child would “want for nothing.”

Olaf (aka Otto Jefferies)

Assassin, sadist and convicted rapist, associate to Edward. Serial killer with physique and M.O./victim profile similar to Edmund Kemper. He thinks all women are beneath him, but came to feel that Anita was his soul mate, despite — or because of — her nominally fitting his vic profile. He has a special “black file” which means he did something for the government, but no one knows what. Edward warned Anita in Obsidian Butterfly that if he comes looking for her, for any reason, to run. He reappears in The Harlequin, only to become further smitten with her (it is revealed in that novel that Olaf has turned down more satisfying work abroad to remain in the U.S. near St. Louis and, presumably, Anita).

See also

• Undead characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Lycanthrope characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Other characters of Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• Mythology of Anita Blake:Vampire Hunter

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_characters_of_Anita_Blake:_Vampire_Hunter “

Lycanthrope characters of Anita

Blake: Vampire Hunter

This is an alphabetical listing of lycanthrope characters in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels.

Contents [hide] 1 Werewolves 1.1 Cassandra 1.2 Gwen 1.3 Jamil 1.4 Jason Schuyler 1.5 Irving Griswold 1.6 King Lycann of Arcadia 1.7 Marcus Fletcher 1.8 Raina Wallis 1.9 Rashida 1.10 Richard Zeeman 1.11 Shang-Da 1.12 Stephen 1.13 Sylvie Barker 2 Wereleopards 2.1 Caleb 2.2 Cesar 2.3 Cherry 2.4 Elizabeth 2.5 Gabriel 2.6 Gina 2.7 Gregory 2.8 Merle 2.9 Micah Callahan 2.10 Nathaniel Graison 2.11 Noah 2.12 Violet 2.13 Vivian 2.14 Zane 3 Wererats 3.1 Bobby Lee 3.2 Claudia 3.3 Igor 3.4 Lillian 3.5 Louis Fane 3.6 Rafael 4 Werehyenas 4.1 Ajax 4.2 Bacchus 4.3 Dionysus 4.4 Ixion 4.5 Narcissus 4.6 Remus 4.7 Ulysses 5 Werelions 5.1 Haven 5.2 Joseph 5.3 Justin 5.4 Noel 5.5 Pierce 5.6 Travis 6 Weretigers 6.1 Christine 6.2 Gideon 6.3 Crispin 6.4 Alex Pinn 6.5 Soledad 7 Swanmanes (Wereswans) 7.1 Donovan Reece 7.2 Kaspar Gunderson 8 Werejaguars 8.1 Seth 9 Other 9.1 Gil 9.2 Melanie 9.3 Orlando King 10 See also 11 Notes

Werewolves

Cassandra

About Anita’s height, with wavy, waist-length brown hair and hazel eyes, Cassandra claimed to be a new werewolf in town. In reality, she was a member of a triumvirate with Sabin and Dominic and was part of a plot to sacrifice Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard in order to save Sabin from a fatal wasting illness (which had been brought on by not drinking human blood, to please Cassandra). Their scheme was unsuccessful, and Harley killed Cassandra during the attempted ritual.

Gwen

Sylvie Barker’s girlfriend, a psychiatrist and a powerful werewolf, with long wavy blond hair and a dainty, “china doll” appearance.

Jamil

Skoll, or first enforcer of the St. Louis pack. Jamil is just shy of six feet, with rich brown skin and waist-length hair woven into corn rows. He is an alpha werewolf with enough power to keep Richard out when Richard lets his power wash over the pack.

Jamil had been Skoll for the pack under Marcus, and tradition dictated that the new Ulfric kill him upon taking over the pack, but Richard let him live to ease the transition. Jamil is thus very loyal to Richard.

Gwen commented that Jamil is homophobic, saying that he thought “every lesbian woman was a woman waiting for the right man”.

Jason Schuyler

Stripper at Guilty Pleasures, best friend to Nathaniel. Occasional lover of Anita, also Jean-Claude’s pomme de sang. He’s in his early 20’s, a Gemini, has blond “baby-fine” hair and sky blue eyes with a mischievous glint to them. Jason is also Anita’s height and loves to tease her or flaunt his being a stripper. He has an intense fear of rotting vampires or anything similar due to being rotted on by two vampires (Bettina and Pallas) in a sexual context. Jason’s hometown is near Asheville, North Carolina.

In Narcissus in Chains, Jason has cut his hair short “businessman short”, and in the more recent novels, Jason has taken on a more complex role as Anita’s friend and sometimes “fuck-buddy”, showing a surprisingly quick and discerning mind, quick to assuage Anita’s fears when she breaks down having tortured Deputy Thompson in Blue Moon, and to point out how she has been neglecting Nathaniel at the beginning of Incubus Dreams.

Irving Griswold

A short, balding werewolf with a day job as an investigative reporter for a Saint Louis newspaper. Irving remains closeted at his day job in order to avoid discrimination, and frequently exchanges information with Anita. Irving was particularly persistent in his attempts to meet and interview Jean-Claude, but got more than he bargained for.

King Lycann of Arcadia (Historical referrence only)

The pack refer to themselves as luskois to honor King Lykaon, who Richard describes as an ancient king who did not hide that he was a werewolf. (In Greek myth, Lycaon was the first king of Arcadia and was cursed by Zeus to turn into a wolf).

Marcus Fletcher

He was the former Ulfric of the werewolf pack. He was a surgeon and one of the pack’s only doctors. He had a lupa named Raina, who together helped put both werewolves and wereleopards into pornographic snuff films. He was killed by Richard in a battle for supremacy and eaten by the entire pack.

Raina Wallis

Raina was a fantastically beautiful werewolf. She was the lupa of the werewolves, “psychotic bitch”, and an extreme sadist. She often used her sexuality to manipulate other wolves into doing her bidding. She and Marcus helped punish werewolves and wereleopards for refusing her by putting them into pornographic snuff films. She was shot and killed by Anita while trying to have Anita killed in one of her snuff films in The Killing Dance. Ironically, now her “munin” (spirit) now “haunts” Anita . Sometimes Anita calls her to get information or help with healing. In return Anita must do her a favor (usually something sexual).

Rashida

Rashida is one of the werewolves attending Jean-Claude in Circus of the Damned. She is beautiful and slender, with dark skin and a close-cropped haircut.

Richard Zeeman

Richard, the ulfric or “wolf-king” of the local werewolf pack, is one of Anita’s primary love interests.

Shang-Da

Hati, or second enforcer of the St. Louis pack. He is a tall man of Chinese descent and an unnervingly intense gaze. Unlike many shapeshifters, Shang-Da prefers elegant clothes (with polished wingtip shoes) for everyday wear.

Shang-Da transferred from the San Francisco Bay pack and took the role of Richard’s Hati without any fights, as no one else wanted the position that badly. Shang-Da has a strong dislike for Anita due to the fact that she hurt Richard in the only way Shang-Da couldn’t protect him from.

He is the first lycanthrope that Anita met who carries a gun, a snub nose .38, and is comfortable doing so.

Stephen

Slightly taller than Anita, with blond hair and blue eyes, Anita describes Stephen as as beautiful as a china doll. Stephen is one of the strippers at Jean-Claude’s club Guilty Pleasures (stage name “Harlow”) and serves as one of Jean-Claude’s personal wolves. He is one of the many beautiful yet vulnerable sex workers Anita takes under her wing during the course of the series. His twin brother Gregory is a wereleopard. Stephen is currently dating the wereleopard Vivian.

Sylvie Barker

Richard’s Geri, or second-in-command and a good friend to Anita. She is a lesbian, has short curly brown hair and is about five foot six inches, currently dating Gwen. Sylvie is an alpha were and one of the few others, besides Richard, that can partially shapeshift. She also has a collection of bones that came from her enemies, such as Fernando, Padma’s son. She occasionally takes out the collection and runs her hands over the bones to comfort herself.

Errata: In The Harlequin, Sylvie states that she “doesn’t do girls”, an error which will be corrected in the paperback release.

Wereleopards

Caleb

One of Micah’s leopards. He has a bit of a wise ass streak and a tendency to ignore orders.

Cesar

A wereleopard from New Mexico, acted as a “sacrifice” for a lycanthrope Aztec stage show run by Itzpapalotl.

Cherry

Cherry is tall and slender, a natural blond, clear-headed and a fount of information, but not someone Anita completely trusts to effectively guard her back. Unlike most known shapeshifters, Cherry more or less consented to receive her lycanthropy (from Gabriel), since it enabled her to regrow a leg that was severed in an automobile accident shortly before. She was a nurse before they found out she was a lycanthrope, and one of the few local weres that has medical knowledge. When it was revealed to her bosses that she was a lycanthrope, she was one of the first one to be laid off because of “budget cuts”; Cherry now more or less flaunts her lycanthropy via exceptionally sensual attire and behavior in public. She acts as Anita’s medic when needed, and can assist Dr. Lillian. She and Zane were once lovers and remain very close. In the privacy of a home environment she prefers to remain nude.

Elizabeth

She made Gabriel a lycanthrope, though the other leopards believe they miss the way things were when Gabriel was Leader. In truth Elizabeth is the only one who truly misses him. She hates Anita because she herself isn’t strong enough to lead the pard.

Gabriel

A sinister looking wereleopard with dark curly hair, Gabriel was the alpha of the St. Louis pard, The Blood Drinkers. While living, Gabriel was called leoparde lionne (a protective leader) by pard members. Posthumously, pard members admitted Gabriel led as a lion passant.

Gabriel was a severe sadomasochistwho contracted lycanthropy when Elizabeth shifted into leopard form during sex and mauled him nearly to death, the crowning moment of his life. Gabriel forced his pard to participate in Raina’s pornography operation, and eventually fixated on the idea of raping and mauling Anita on film while she attempted to kill him. Anita was successful in that scenario, and Gabriel died.

According to his pard, Gabriel was called a lion passant, because he ruled but did not actively protect the pard. (Although Gabriel did protect the pard in some ways, such as helping Zane quit drugs, protecting Nathaniel as he explored his darker urges, and helping Cherry to regenerate a severed leg, he was not willing to risk his personal safety for the pard).

Gina

One of the two females from Micah’s original pard, the Maneaters. Both female weres were kept by Chimera as hostages and tortured extensively to ensure Micah’s cooperation.

Gregory

His twin brother Stephen is a werewolf. Like his brother, Gregory is a stripper (stage name: “Marlowe”) at Jean-Claude’s strip club Guilty Pleasures. When they were children, they were sexually abused and pimped-out by their father, Anthony Dietrich. Gregory played a role in Raina’s porn movies, raping and hurting the werewolves, but once Anita became the Nimir-Ra, he stopped.

Merle

Stepped down as Nimir-Raj of Micah’s pard in favor of Micah. Now bodyguard to Micah, resembles an aging biker. Merle wouldn’t sacrifice his human form for his pard, the Maneater Clan, so Micah stepped in and attempted to stand up to Chimera.

Micah Callahan

Micah Callahan arrived in St. Louis as the Nimir-Raj of the Maneater Clan. Merging his pard with Anita’s pard, the Blooddrinkers Pard,^[1]they rule as Nimir-Raj (King) and Nimir-Ra (Queen). Micah is coordinator of the Lycanthrope Coalition, and is also Anita’s live-in lover and closest companion.

Micah has many unique powers as a shape-shifter. He can heal others by ‘calling flesh.’ He has the ability to shape-shift quickly, and is not tired or ill from the effort. He has chartreuse yellow/green eyes that won’t shift back to human eyes, a result of too much time in animal form, forced by Chimera. He is about the same height and same size as Anita, with rich brown hair, very large genitalia (as noted several times by Anita), and is extremely easy-going. He does, however, share an antagonistic relationship with Richard, who feels that Micah has usurped his place.

Nathaniel Graison

Nathaniel is a striking wereleopard in his early twenties, approximately 5′6″ with long mahogany auburn hair, lilac eyes, “pretty” rather than handsome features, and a muscular swimmer’s body. In his animal form, Nathaniel is a black were-leopard. A stripper at Guilty Pleasures, (stage name: Brandon, former “porno name”: Nicky), Nathaniel is one of Anita’s lovers and a member of her second triumvirate. For several novels, Nathaniel was Anita’s pomme de sang. Descriptions of Nathaniel’s eyes and vanilla scent fill each book, and it is common to see paragraphs devoted to the shade of his eyes.

Nathaniel has been reluctant to share details of his past. Anita has been able to learn that Nathaniel’s parents died when he was young, and that Nathaniel and his older brother Nicky were in the custody of an abusive man. Nicky protected Nathaniel at first, but also died when Nathaniel was quite young, at which point Nathaniel ran away. At some point in his late teens, Nathaniel was found by Gabriel. By that point, Nathaniel was a drug addicted prostitute, and was so submissive and masochistic that he was literally incapable of saying no to any torture proposed to him. Gabriel helped Nathaniel stop taking drugs but was unable or unwilling to address Nathaniel’s other problems and simply pimped Nathaniel, restraining customers from taking too much advantage of him.

After Anita took control of the St. Louis pard, Nathaniel attached himself to Anita for protection. Nathaniel has been working to become more assertive and self-reliant, if only to please Anita. He is still highly submissive and is happy to take the “wife” position in Anita’s increasingly large harem - cleaning, cooking, and generally providing emotional support. In Incubus Dreams, Anita inadvertently marked Nathaniel as her animal servant, forming a triumvirate between Anita, Nathaniel, and Damian.

In The Harlequin, Nathaniel finally shows some burgeoning self-assertion, insisting to Anita that if she does not address his masochistic sexual needs, he will go elsewhere for what he wants.

Noah

One of Micah’s bodyguards. Third in line for the Maneater Clan’s leadership.

Violet

One of the two females from Micah’s original pard, the Maneaters. Both female weres were kept by Chimera as hostages and tortured extensively to ensure Micah’s cooperation.

Vivian

Hamilton describes Vivian as African-American, with Irish genetics as well, for a very pale but dark coloring. She makes Anita think of a delicate beautiful doll and feel protective of her. Throughout the mid and later novels, Vivian has been dating Stephen, a werewolf and Gregory’s twin. (As explained by Richard in the novel Narcissus In Chains, interspecies dating of shape-shifters is acceptable as long as the shifters are not alphas, as long as they are weak they can date whoever they want without social stress. Alphas, however normally date their own species, with some maverick exceptions such as Richard and Anita.)

Zane

Tried to be alpha when Gabriel died; happy to hand things over to Anita. Formerly dated Cherry and still has strong feelings for her. Has fangs on upper and lower teeth that won’t shift back (result of too much time in animal form).

Wererats

Bobby Lee

Bodyguard for Anita, has a thick southern drawl. Bobby Lee and Anita have become friends, and they now share a private joke. Bobby Lee has a tendency to address Anita as “girl”, and Anita reminds him “Don’t call me ‘girl’, Bobby Lee.” He responds, “Yes, ma’am.” Then they look at each other and smile.

Claudia

Bodyguard for Anita. She stands at around 6′6. More muscular than most men, and with a take-no-guff attitude. Comfortable with handguns. Also described as beautiful even without makeup.

Igor

Former bodyguard for Anita. Covered in tattoos. Killed by a serpentine lycanthrope.

Lillian

Doctor. Frequently patches up shapeshifters in their unofficial infirmary. Middle age in appearance, dexterous hands. It is not a well-known fact that she is a wererat.

Louis “Louie” Fane

Louis is about 5′6″, with black hair and eyes, and is known as “Louie” to his friends. A biology professor at Wash U, Louie is Richard’s best friend, and is currently dating Ronnie, Anita’s best friend. He asked Ronnie to marry him but she turned him down because she didn’t feel ready to be married nor did she share Louie’s desire to have kids.

Rafael

He is the Rat King and one of Anita’s friends. Rafael is strongly Mexican, and is described as “tall, dark and handsome” (Lunatic Cafe) with a stern face and sensual lips. He has a crown branded into his forearm to mark him as Rat King and his clan is called the Dark Crown Clan. He and Nikolaoswere in conflict over control of the city’s rats and wererats until Anita killed her. Anita saved his life so he offers her bodyguards or any other help when she needs them. Rafael also has treaties with Richard and Jean-Claude. He has an ex-wife who moved with his child to another state to get away from him because of what he is. He has visitation rights.

He offers himself up as Anita’s Pomme de Sang in The Harlequin in order to have a better connection with Anita and Jean-Claude and therefore be more protected against outside forces.

Werehyenas

Ajax

Blond werehyena who acts as bodyguard to Narcissus. Lover of Ulysses. Had his arms and legs cut off and the stumps burned so that he could not heal the damage by Chimera.

Bacchus

A werehyena with dark, curly hair and eyes of a strange shade of gold. Lover of Dionysus. Bacchus was shot and badly wounded by Anita during a confrontation at the Narcissus in Chains club. He recovered from his injuries and told Anita about the werehyenas’ situation regarding Narcissus and Chimera.

Dionysus

Lover of Bacchus, his tongue was cut out and presented to his lover by Chimera.

Ixion

A relatively new werehyena who is still adjusting to his new name (given to him by Narcissus), Ixion is one of the werehyenas who bodyguard Anita as a result of her alliance with Narcissus.

Narcissus

Owner of the club, Narcissus in Chains (a BDSM club), and leader of the city’s werehyena population. An effeminate hermaphrodite, he became pregnant following his relationship with Chimera. Narcissus is into both sides of BDSM and Asher topped him after Narcissus met with the triumvirateof Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard. Under the old ruling of Raina and Marcus, Narcissus was given favors and not allowed to let his hyena population grow over 50 members. Once Richard became Ulfric, the old deals were voided and Narcissus decided he wanted to be able to make some of the decisions for the lycanthrope population of St. Louis versus having the decisions made for him.

Remus

Described by Anita as having a face that looked as if it had been broken in the past, Remus is one of the werehyenas who bodyguard Anita as a result of her alliance with Narcissus.

Ulysses

Dark-haired werehyena who acts as bodyguard to Narcissus. Lover of Ajax.

Werelions

Haven

Werelion brought with Augustine from Chicago as a pomme de sang candidate for Anita, and to try and take over the local pride. Pale, with short, spiky blue hair, dyed so that many hues of blue are present, all mixed together, just like real hair. His eyes are also a pale blue. Anita calls him Cookie (in reference to Cookie Monster). He has tattoos of Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street, and has implied that he has more.

Haven has been sent back to Chicago by the beginning of The Harlequinas Anita is attempting to preserve the local pride. However, when the local were-lions refuse to help her (unlike the other members of the Lycanthrope Coalition), Haven returns. As a result, he takes over the local pride. Others claim he is in love with Anita as he finds himself wanting to be better than he is in order not to disappoint her.

Joseph

Rex of the St. Louis pride. In his pride, there is a male coalition; they rule the pride together.

In Narcissus in Chains, it is mentioned he has a mate (named Amber) who is pregnant and on strict bed-rest. They’ve tried three other times to have a child, but generally the change from human to animal form is too stressful for the body to carry a child to term.

In The Harlequin, Joseph, his wife, and his brother disappear (it is alluded that they are killed by Anita or her people) after Joseph is condemned by Anita and her companions for his unwillingness to commit adultery with her, his pride’s self-imposed “weakness,” and his lack of appeal to her inner lioness.

Justin

Joseph’s brother. He is part of Joseph’s male coalition; they ruled the pride together.

Noel

A werelion in the St. Louis pride, sent with Travis by Joseph to become Anita’s new animals to call before Anita marked Haven, making way for a hostile takeover of the St. Louis werelion pride. He was rejected on the basis of being too submissive and weak as Anita’s ardeur was seeking more powerful prey.

Pierce

Werelion brought with Augustine from Chicago as a pomme de sang candidate for Anita, and to try and take over the local pride. A brunette, with hair that looks like it might curl, but it’s cut too short to have a chance. The swell of his shoulders shows that he lifts weights as more than a casual hobby.

Travis

A werelion in the St. Louis pride, sent with Noel to become Anita’s new animal to call before Anita was marked by Haven.

Weretigers

Christine

A blonde weretiger, Christine is a lycanthrope who belongs to no social group (neither pack, nor pard, nor pride). Gabriel embarrassed her by reciting the poem “Tyger, Tyger” at a lycanthrope meeting. She is a rarity, since tiger-based lycanthropy is hard to contract. In The Harlequin it is revealed that she fled to St. Louis in order to avoid an arranged marriage. The weretiger culture is dominated by five same groups who maintain the bloodlines and dislike weretigers who are not born into the condition.

Gideon

A handsome weretiger with blonde-brown hair, his eyes are yellow-and-orange, due to too much time in animal form. His voice sounds like he is growling. He is a somewhat reluctant servant of Padma.

Crispin

A white weretiger from Las Vegas. He is the only adult male in his group, so he helps the pregnant females so they do not lose their babies. There is a chance he made Anita pregnant, and if doing so, he said that he would marry her and take her back to Las Vegas.

Alex Pinn

A red weretiger with black stripes. He is a reporter, and does not live with other weretigers. His mother is the queen of their group, which he left. He too said that if he made Anita pregnant, that he would marry her and together they would go back to the group that he left.

Soledad

A young woman who hid with the wererats to prevent being married to a family of weretigers, it was revealed that she was the animal servant of a vampire assassin and had incredible healing abilities. She tried to kill Anita and killed a young werewolf named Cisco. Her tiger form was described as being yellow with white stripes.

Swanmanes (Wereswans)

Donovan Reece

Tall at about six feet, pale milk-and-cream complexion, and handsome in a preppy, clean-cut sort of way. Donovan Reece is the Swan King of every swanmane in the U.S. Reece states that he is the first Swan King in a century, and that he has been destined from birth to that position, since he has a birthmark in the shape of a swan. He has been groomed for this position since he was young, though he doesn’t want it. As part of the coalition he is allies with Anita and other were groups. As an inborn politician and Swan King he has to travel from swan group to swan group, looking in on them, settling problems. He’s been talking about the coalition to other cities. Without a swan queen he has to do twice the work.

Kaspar Gunderson

Tall and pale, with downy feathers in place of hair, Gunderson was a proud and cruel European prince and hunter. Centuries ago, he was cursed by a witch to transform into a swan in the hope that he would learn kindness. Instead, Gunderson walked the Earth, becoming increasingly more bitter. One of the few shapeshifters who transformed into prey rather than a predator, Gunderson had an uneasy relationship with most other shapeshifters. Although he was a shapeshifter, he wasn’t a lycanthrope and could transform from a human to a swan and back repeatedly without a period of unconsciousness. Gunderson’s curse prevented him from aging, and he claimed that he could not be killed, even with silver. However, he is eventually killed by Edward, who gives his feathered skin to Anita as a gift. It is alluded to that he is the basis of the main character of Swan Lake.

Werejaguars

Seth

A werejaguar from New Mexico, who serves Itzpapalotl, cutting himself as “offerings” to his mistress and her servants, allowing them to drink from the bleeding wounds until they healed. He allows Itzpapalotl to use her Human Servant to suck the life force out of his body, both turning him into a living mummified corpse and feeding all of her vampires.

Other

Gil

A timid werefox, sought out Anita’s protection when alpha lycanthropes began disappearing. He is the only werefox in town, and relies on the protection of other lycanthropes, such as werewolves, since he has no skulk of his own.

Melanie

A lamia capable of turning her legs into a serpent’s tail, Melanie is apparently a true immortal and does not appear to be killable by any means. She has retractable fangs in her mouth and is venomous. Melanie can turn willing men into snake people, her “harem” of potential mates. She first appears as a member of Mr. Oliver’s retinue, but ultimately gets a job as a member of Jean-Claude’s circus troupe, performing at The Circus of the Damned.

Orlando King

Orlando King was one of the country’s most famous lycanthrope hunters. After surviving a savage attack, he apparently “softened” his stance regarding shapeshifters and began preaching tolerance. Eventually, Anita learned the true story — after surviving a werewolf attack, King found that he had been infected with werewolf lycanthropy. King decided to kill as many shapeshifters as possible before the next full moon, assuming that if he took sufficiently dangerous missions, he would himself be killed before his first change. Ultimately, however, none of the shapeshifters he fought was able to kill him, and before his first change, King was infected with six different kinds of lycanthropy: werewolf, wereleopard, werelion, werebear, werehyena, and weresnake. King became a panwere, able to shift to any of the six animal forms with which he was infected, and developed a multiple personality disorder, with four distinct personalities:

• The primary personality was Orlando King himself, a famous former lycanthrope hunter.
• Chimera, King’s secondary personality was the result of King disassociating himself from many of the killings for which he had felt ashamed during his life. Chimera had control of King’s body at times, and also had complete control of King’s lion, wolf, hyena, and leopard forms. As Chimera, he took over Micah Callahan’s pard and ruled it brutally.
• Coronus: Coronus of the Black Water clan was King’s personality in his were-anaconda form, and was a distinct personality. In this form, King was the leader of the Black Water clan, a South American tribe of Anacondas. These weresnakes were notable in that when they died, they did not revert to human form. The snake-man form was apparently the normal state.
• Boone: Boone was King’s other distinct personality. Interestingly, Boone could manifest not only a werebear form, but could also appear in human form as a person who did not resemble King at all. He was originally the leader of a sleuth of werebears, before King made Boone infect him and then killed him.

King considered capturing Anita as his mate when he believed that she was a werewolf/wereleopard panwere, but eventually settled for torturing and raping as many people as possible. Anita finally killed him by draining his life energy. King may be survived by a child, as Narcissus was pregnant with his child at the end of Narcissus in Chains.

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