The Laughing Corpse / Laurell K. Hamilton

4 out of 5 stars

Harold Gaynor offers Anita Blake a million dollars to raise a 300-year-old zombie. Knowing it means a human sacrifice will be necessary, Anita turns him down. But when dead bodies start turning up, she realizes that someone else has raised Harold's zombie--and that the zombie is a killer. Anita pits her power against the zombie and the voodoo priestess who controls it.

In The Laughing Corpse Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried-and some people better off dead...


  ***2017 Summer Lovin' Reading List***

How can I not adore a book that has a character bearing my name? May I say that I did love Wheelchair Wanda, the prostitute with a heart of gold? Even better, she lives while men die around her like flies!

But the book is about Anita, who is just a bit rougher and tougher that your average Urban Fantasy heroine. Because she is an animator/nercromancer, there are also far more zombies than I'm used to in the genre. How is it that I can lurve the vampires and feel so ambivalent about the zombies? I just don't understand their appeal.

Nevertheless, Anita experiences what so many (if not all) UF heroines do--they suddenly find hidden depths to their powers which solves their current dilemma, but opens a whole can of worms, to be explored in further volumes. Has she found her leverage to use against Jean-Claude, the King of Vampires in her city, or will she be lulled into a false sense of safety with him? (I'm betting on door number two!)

Right, off to order book three from my friendly neighbourhood public library!