Product Description

And you don't fall in love with a werewolf. It interferes with your work. Especially when you're a preternatural expert, like me. My business brings me up close and personal with all shapes and sizes of monsters. And not ALL of them want to kill me. Take, for instance, the local pack of lycanthropes - they're werewolves to you. A number of them are missing, and they've come to me for help. Maybe because I'm dating the leader of the pack. I've survived a lot - from jealous vampires to killer zombies - but this love thing may kill me yet. Look out for information on this book and others on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6442 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Vampires, Werewolves whats next?
This is the first of the Anita blake novels to take way too much time on describing explicit sex scenes, whilst clearly a part of the character development do we really need to devote entire chapters of the book detailing, in very graphic terms, every sexual moment.
Richard the werewolf and Anita are now dating, but she's not sure she really wants to be involved with a non-human. To make matters more complicated, the vampire Gretchen wants to take revenge on Anita for taking Jean-Claude away from her, and Jean-Claude wants to kill Richard for taking Anita away from him. The core plot of the Missing Lycanthropes And rather unfolds in the background.
The real plus points are the great new culture Anita is exposed to in the werewolves and there are some great moments, in particular when Anita meets the alpha-male werewolf Marcus and his pack, and the final set-piece slugfest itself.

Werewolf or vampire, that is the question
Up until this point, the main character in the series, Anita Blake, has been staying away from love. Anita is an animator and vampire slayer, who has been wooed for quite some time by the master vampire of the city, Jean-Claude. On the previous book, "The Circus of the Damned", we saw Anita moving away from the enchanting vampire to start searching for love in what she thought was a normal human. She was surprised when, after a vampire tore out the throat of his suitor, he did not die. Richard is a werewolf, and Anita is trying to reconcile this information with her own feelings for him. Anita's reluctant acceptance of love may have to do with the moment in time in which Laurell K. Hamilton wrote this book, since she was pregnant and delivered a baby girl named Trinity.

With each book, the reader gets a clearer idea about what the place in which Anita lives in is like. For example, we find out that there are creatures that we did not know existed in this world, like dragons, gargoyles and trolls. Also, we learn that discrimination against lycanthropes is illegal but existent nonetheless. In this case, everything starts when the husband of one particular lycanthrope shows up at Anita's office looking for help, since his wife is missing and he cannot go to the authorities for fear she will be fired if the "secret" comes out. In addition to this, Dolph, who works with the preternatural unit of the police department, summons Anita because there has been a murder of suspicious nature. Anita determines that the murder was committed by a shapeshifter, denomination that includes werewolves.

Besides the "usual" type of situations Anita faces, she has to deal with her relationship with Richard, and his battle for the leadership of the wolf pack with an alpha male called Marcus. Jean-Claude will not go away without a fight, and he is trying to get Anita to date him instead of the werewolf. To complete the picture, there is a female vampire that is in love with Jean Claude and thinks that the only way to get her prize is to eliminate her competition. Anita describes this situation perfectly: "Bully for me!"

Hamilton is perfecting a world and a character that grab the attention and the heart of the reader without letting go. As the story progresses, we learn more about Anita's past, her relationship with her mother, her previous experience with love, etc. Also, the reader comes to cherish some of the characters that at first seem unlikable, like Edward, the "gun for hire". A friend told me that the series will get kinkier as it progresses, and I already saw this happen in this book, but this change in tone matches perfectly the mood of the main character. The truth is, I cannot get enough of Anita Blake!

Great book!
I've read a lot of books, but there are only a few I come back to time and time again. Those are the ones I absolutely love, and this book IS one of them! I love Anita's unique sense of humor, personality, ingenuity, and mostly her honor. If Anita gives you her word then she'll try to keep her promise to the best of her ability. If you think about it you can also see Anita's character grow as she gathers more experience in her daily life and finds out that not all the bad guys are shapeshifters' or vampires. Hamilton weaves many characters into her story to complicate things for Anita, but unlike a lot of secondary characters they also support and enhance the story. Here's a teaser, for those who think Anita is lucky to have Jean Claude and Richard, wait until you find out about Asher and Damian! I also like her soft side, you know, the penguins!! My all time favorite though is the language!! Hamilton is freer with the language Anita uses than many other author's. After all we are better able to get into the story when the author uses language that we can associate with. It jars you when a character suddenly says, "By Derimiones!!" because you don't really consider that to be a cuss word. If you like the supernatural, and are not intimidated by langauge read this series. I really recommend reading her books in order because then you'll understand stuff that is referred to in her previous books. Have a good read!