Product Description

"Readers haven't seen anything yet-new in the ""fabulously imagined series"" (Publishers Weekly) from the #1 New York Times bestselling author. Anita Blake 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 is to be under sentence of death. Long-time rivals for Anita's affections, Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City, and Richard, alpha-werewolf, will need to become allies. Shapeshifters 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... "

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5295 in eBooks
• Published on: 2008-03-05
• Released on: 2008-03-05
• Format: Kindle Book
• Number of items: 1

From Publishers Weekly
At the start of bestseller Hamilton's solid 15th adventure to star vampire hunter Anita Blake, Malcolm, the priggish head of the Church of the Eternal Life (the vampire church), is so desperate for help in dealing with the Harlequin, a troop of vampire enforcers and spies so feared vampires are forbidden to speak its name, he turns to those he considers sinful and corrupt—Anita and her sweetie, Jean-Claude, St. Louis's Master of the City. The Harlequin may have targeted Anita and the powerful triumvirate she has forged with Jean-Claude and Richard Zeeman (aka Ulfric of the werewolves). According to the rules, the Harlequin must make contact through delivery of a mask—white to indicate they are watching, red for pain, black for death. Anita receives a white mask, but the members of the Harlequin aren't playing by the rules. Shorter and more tightly structured than the previous entry in the series, Danse Macabre (2006), Hamilton's latest should prove more satisfying to longtime fans with its straightforward supernatural politics and steamy (but not extreme) sex.
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Review
"Hamilton just keeps getting better and better. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Her books outsell any other current vampire fiction -- Publishers Weekly

About the Author
Laurell K. Hamilton is a full-time writer. She lives in a suburb of St. Louis with her family.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful seller
The book I purchased was listed as used, but was in such good condition I would have sworn it was new! A great deal!

Story is Absoultely Dreadful - Audio reader is good though
I heard great reviews about the Anita Blake series and happened to find the audio version of this one at my local library. I probably should have started with the first book, but this one was available and I really wanted to check out this series.

For the Audio version, the reader does do a nice job of reading the story, but that is the only nice thing that I can say. I got about 1/2 through the book and couldn't continue.

Nothing deep here. Lots of talk about herms, orgy sized beds, and Anita's 7 (YES 7) lovers that she has all at once. There was a story here, but hard to muddle your way through with all the other stuff going on, so I chose to put it down.

I certainly don't mind a book that's a little sexy, but this to me was just plain sick. I hate to be harsh, but this was just plain bad. Her writing style isn't bad but the story is too much to bear.

A Sad Death
LKH had the potential of doing for dark fantasy what Mercedes Lackey did for high fantasy... but alas it was not meant to be. A series that started out with hoards of promise has spiraled from outstanding to airport pulp to personal therapy for the writer down to nothing more than a formula for laugh ability.

Curious what will happen in upcoming books? Standard bad guy will come in upset balance. Anita will call in "backup" she never really uses and we never really get to know. She will get one or two "bodyguards" she obviously does not need killed... and then agonize over it like they were babies and not bodyguards. Things will come to a head but Anita will magically get some new massive awesome mystical power and save everyone most likely through having sex with a brand new character who will also never be developed. Nobody really relates to her anymore. She should just slaughter them all and sit happily atop the pile of corpses... keeping only two alive for her... pleasure?

I really really had high hopes for this series. Rather than carbon copying the characters over to Meredith Gentry she could have further explored this alternate earth. Given up stunning yet separate stories of Richard, Edward, London, Cherry, Claudia or even Jason. So many likable characters she could have developed and kept us all coming back for more. Instead her eye has become so narrow she has forsaken the other massive personalities the lived within her own mind. She has allowed Anita to.. indeed... slaughter all she loved and become a universe within her own mind. The Anita Blake series is dead and I don't see it rising again anytime soon.