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

2008-03-07 Brilliant 2nd best book in series

I loved this book, I am a new fan of the anita blake series and I have read the first 5 books now in a matter of weeks. I loved Guilty Pleasures as this really brings you into the world of Anita and the great characters in the series and just has you wanting for more. But this book was the scariest of them yet and times a little gross but thats what you want from a vampire slayer style book. I just love the main characters in this book and I also love the developing relationship with anita and Jean Claude. I have read reviews on here of the later books and people have said the sex takes over a bit but I am not there yet and to be honest I cant wait till she actually does the deed with Jean Claude as its building for the last 5 books. I am facinated with vampires and shapeshifers anyway and this book really does delve into there worlds like no other book or programme I have ever read or watched and I love it. This would make a great tv series or movie but then again would probably ruin all the images you make of the characters. But I cant wait to read the rest of the series and just hope Ms Hamilton keeps on developing anita more and more. A great book