I am still reading through the omnibus edition of the first 3 books in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series – there are at least 24 books to date – and loving it. Horror is not my usual genre, but these are so well written with Anita’s humanity and principles clearly to the forefront despite her gruesome job of raising zombies – for which there are good reasons, believe me – that I can handle the grim and tense parts without being too grossed out.

Anyway, here is my review of book #2, THE LAUGHING CORPSE. I am already well into book #3.

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: The Laughing Corpse, Volume 3: Executioner by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book 2 of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, has not so much to do with vampires this time around – this time, Anita is up to her ears in zombie problems. Something nasty is out there, targeting small families and eating them – yuk.
Anita’s own powers are much more to the forefront in this story, as she explores and discovers more about her affinity with the dead, and we also learn about her history, and how she first discovered her macabre ability to raise the dead, rounding out her own character a whole heap more than in book #1. We hear about her family, and particularly about her links to the world of Voodoo. She may try to deny it, but she has great untrained power, and that’s where she comes a little unstuck – her insistence on remaining ignorant is not in her favour when she has to go up against the most powerful Voodoo priestess in the region.
I’m not a zombie fan, but the story gripped me nonetheless, and as ever Anita is dealing with more than one problem at a time, which means there is never a dull moment. With vampires, at least you get respite when the sun comes up – not so with zombies, or nasty wealthy creeps who want you to work for them even when you’ve said ‘no’ in no uncertain terms. The very short, sharp sentences ramp up the pace and the tension, and I sailed through this book without pause, then started straight into the next one, which always says plenty about how much I enjoyed it. This series is not for the squeamish, but if you enjoy that edge of horror, definitely try them out.


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