Product Description

The fantastically addicitive first Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novel

‘I don’t date vampires. I kill them.’

My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me the Executioner. What I call them isn’t repeatable.

Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I’ve seen their victims. I carry the scars...

But now a serial killer is murdering vampires – and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4814 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-14
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Laurell K. Hamilton is the bestselling author of the acclaimed Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novels. She lives near St Louis with her husband, her daughter, two dogs and an ever-fluctuating number of fish.

Customer Reviews

Anita Blake vampire hunter
Anita Blake is an Animator, an animator is not someone who draws cartoons but rather a person who has the innate ability to raise the dead. Anita and those she works with raise zombies to settle will disputes, have abused people resolve their feelings and other things -- all for a reasonable fee. On the side of this most prolific of professions Anita is a vampire hunter -- she's nicknamed 'the Executioner' by the vampires and (obviously) isn't too keen on them. In fact, she loathes them and there's references to her and Edward seeing all supernatural beings as monsters. The fact that Anita is also a christian may factor into this view, although I never felt like Hamilton was too heavy handed with Anita's religion it's just sort of there... In 'Guilty Pleasures' a vampire master named Jean-Claude is shown as being interested in Anita. Much to her chagrin, and not only this but he's keen to make her his human servant.

Hamilton's world is well conceived and boasts an interesting array of characters. I found Anita a little difficult to engage with at first because she was so tough-minded, and came off a little cold. But after a fashion I started to really adore her -- she has a wonderfully peculiar sense of humour and a penchant for stuffed penguins. Another character I loved was the ruthless Edward; he in particular seemed interesting. Jean-Claude the master vampire was a little under-developed but I liked him nonetheless. Guilty Pleasures is written in quite a hard-boiled manner and is nice and gory (proably not one for people who dislike blood) -- this book is definitely gritty, as urban fantasy's go. You can really see how a lot of other UFs have been influenced by this series. Indeed, the best thing about this novel and the series as a whole (the early books anyway) is that it's dark and unafraid to lean towards perversity and uncomfortable matters.

The main plot of the book is Anita being asked by the Master of the City to find out who is murdering vampires. In this world vampires are legal citizens and as a result, killing one without a court order of execution is considered murder. Thus, despite Anita's reluctance in this matter she is drawn in to solve the case. If she doesn't she'll probably be in for a world of pain. Something she wishes to avoid at all costs.

The plot was well paced and wasn't bogged down with too much emotional baggage and annoying romance; I liked the bitter-sweetness of the ending and found it quite 'realistic' in the context of Anita's world. This series does become poorer as times goes on -- I've read books 1-9, but would only recommend 1-6 and skip straight on to the ninth book 'Obsidian Butterfly' which is a fantastic 500 page epic to finish on.

A fantastic start to the series...
This is the urban fantasy series' that started it all; meet Anita Blake aka The Executioner.

Each character is carefully drawn, and I genuinely cared what happened to each one; good, bad, human, other... I stayed up to 2 in the morning to finish the book, a sign that I was fully immersed.


Sadly the later books have dropped the mystery and suspense in order to leave more room for (pretty bad) sex scenes, but I highly recommend books 1-9.

fangtastic
this is quite a good read once you accept the idea of vampires and humans living side by side,oh and the idea of re-animating the dead i.e zombies.!!.the central character Anita Blake is an executioner of vampires ,those who prey on unsuspecting humans that is.
Then she is hired by the master vampire of the area-who happens to be a 1,000 year old child.!-to find who is 'murdering'vampires..all sorts of mayhem ensue.