Product Description

First, there were the dead in the graveyard, two-hundred years dead. I'd been hired to raise them to settle a dispute over who owned the land they were buried in. Then there were the three dead teenagers in the woods, slaughtered in a way I'd never seen before. And then they found the dead girl, drained of blood and left in her bed. I knew what that meant of course. It didn't take a degree in preternatural studies to figure out that something was wrong in and around Branson, Missouri. And I was right in the middle of it. My name is Anita Blake. Welcome to my life ...Look out for information on this and other books on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5768 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 370 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In some of Laurell Hamilton's excellent supernatural thrillers about Anita Blake, the Vampire Executioner, we forget that Anita raises the dead for a living, and that her involvements with the undead, the temporarily furry and the St Louis Police Department are only a sideline. In Bloody Bones, she is hired to raise the victims of some long-ago mass slaughter, a pile of dismembered arms and legs and skulls and ribs, and identify them. Her employers want to build a luxury hotel on ground claimed by the Bouvier clan as an old burial ground--and the Bouviers are not entirely human... Add to the mix murders too brutal to be obviously vampiric, a feud between Anita's vampire date Jean-Claude and the older vampire who rules the neighbouring countryside--and we have the sort of complicated mess of intrigue which Hamilton always handles so well. Anita is an interesting character because so torn between what she is, a necromancer with the power to compel the dead, and a person far too accomplished at violence, and her religious beliefs, as well as between her attraction to Jean-Claude and her love for the werewolf Richard. She is a fascinating series character because she changes so much.--Roz Kaveney

Review
'Death and gore galore ... Hamilton writes with ease and vigour...' SHIVERS 'I was enthralled - a departure from the usual type of vampire tale which will have a wide appeal to any reader hunting for both chills and fun' ANDRE NORTON 'This fast-paced, tough-edged supernatural thriller is mesmerizing reading indeed' LOCUS 'Supernatural bad guys beware, night-prowling Anita Blake is savvy, sassy and tough' P N Elrod, author of THE VAMPIRE FILES

LOCUS
'This fastpaced, toughedged supernatural thriller is mesmerizing reading indeed'

Customer Reviews

Anita Blake is back.
Back to good old fashioned action here the sex takes a bit of a back burner for a true gore fest.
Anita Blake has been called out to deepest Missouri to raise some very old dead, to help settle a land dispute. But not only is there more going on in this dispute than meets the eye, while she is there she also gets involved in tracking down some extremely old renegade vampires, with some 'help' from Jean-Claude, but none from the local police.
The tone of the series is getting darker, richer and deeper with every book. At the start, Anita is just The Executioner, a vampire hunter sure of herself and sure that fighting the monsters is the right thing to do. Now she's not so sure that all the monsters are all bad, or even if she is still one of the good guys, as she gets more and more necromancy powers. And the price she has to pay for each new victory just keeps growing. But even if she's not quite sure anymore what she is fighting, that doesn't stop her fighting every inch of the way.

Anita Blake #5 - The Best & Scariest Book Yet!
Anita Blake is a feisty, independent, 21st century lady who's got attitude with a capital "A." Animator, necromancer, called by vampires everywhere "The Executioner," she is tops in her field and a woman of many talents. The St. Louis Police Department's Regional Preternatural Investigation Team has made her a full fledged member, a civilian expert, and she is on call 24/7 to help solve their more grizzly cases. Unfortunately Anita prefers to date the undead and the "lunarly disadvantaged." She is involved with Richard Zeeman, rugged, outdoor type, science teacher by day, and otherwise a werewolf. Jean Claude, Master Vampire, sophisticate, unbelievably handsome and sexiest vamp around town, also has a hold on her affections. What's a girl to do?

Bert, the unscrupulous owner of Animators, Inc., and Anita's boss, has accepted a large fee in exchange for Anita's services on a new case; services he doesn't know whether she is able to perform. Millions of dollars are at stake, and Anita may be the only animator powerful enough to do the job. Her mission is to raise an entire graveyard of zombies in order to settle some land dispute issues. The bones have been disturbed and separated, and the corpses are at least 300 years-old. The older the corpse, the bigger the sacrifice needed for a raising, and the more powerful an animator has to be. Another matter of great concern - someone, or something is killing local youths. An ancient, psychotic, sword-wielding vampire, and his renegade cohorts, are most likely involved in the grotesque serial murders. Against her better judgement, Anita calls on Jean Claude for help, since she isn't receiving any from the local police. The idea is to go through the area's Master Vampire - Serephina - and petition her to rein in her monsters. The story can only become scarier with Serephina in on the action.

A fey family, the Bouviers, is involved in the graveyard-land dispute. Brother and sister, Magnus and Dorcus Bouvier are faeries, Homo arcanus, and proprietors of The Bloody Bones, a bar and eatery in the Ozarks. Anita and Larry Kirkland, an animator trainee and Anita's new protégé, pay a visit to ask the owners some questions about their estate holdings and discover that faery magic, glamour, is being used, illegally, to bring in customers.

The tone of the series gets darker and richer with every book, as does Anita's character. Initially, she is only an animator and The Executioner, a vampire hunter, convinced that fighting monsters is the right thing to do. Now, as her necromancy powers become stronger, she's not so sure that all the monsters are all bad. What exactly is the price she is paying for each new victory? Action and adventure-wise, "Bloody Bones" is one of Ms. Hamilton's best books yet. And Anita Blake is a delight - witty, savvy, hard-boiled, and a major cynic with a tender heart. I highly recommend this series. A Warning, however - to really enjoy these novels, and the characters' development, the books should be read in order.
JANA

Brilliant!
For the first book I've ever bought off Amazon, Bloody Bones had a lot to live up to, and I wasn't dissapointed! It was more then I thought it was going to be, the summary had confused me a lot but it was nice to see Anita go out of town and to battle a new Master. It also showed me a terrifying side to Anita and I think Larry really grew up in this book. I loved finding out more about Jean-Claude in the bathtub scene. It just added a vulnerability to him I'd never thought of before.

Overall I truly loved this book and was surprised at the lack of physical involvement on Dolph's part. I was also surprised at the villain in the book, but Laurell always manages to surprise me.