Product Description
Preternatural expert Anita Blake meets an interesting array of monsters that includes jealous vampires and killer zombies, but her work with a group of besieged werewolves is threatened when she falls in love with its leader.
Amazon.com Review
The zombie-raising business gets slow in December, so Anita Blake is starting to see some oddball cases. She’s got a neatly typed list of eight missing lycanthropes given to her by Marcus, the leader of the local werewolf pack, who wants her to find them. The trouble is, Anita’s occasionally furry boyfriend Richard is locked in a power struggle with Marcus. Jean-Claude, master vampire of the city and Anita’s other love interest, is getting jealous as well. To top it off, Anita has to solve some horrific murders and keep her bounty-hunting friend Edward from killing Richard and Jean-Claude. Hamilton alternates between funny and fearsome in this larky series about a monster hunter with a few dark secrets.
Dan Seitz @ 11:01 pm
Normally, I can’t stand this genre; instead of something new, the cliches are just tossed together in a hash. But Laurell K. Hamilton keeps me coming back.
Part of it is the ongoing plot threads that go from book to book. Although these novels can stand alone, there are larger threads. Anita Blake’s “romance” with Jean-Claude, the master vampire, for example, or the hints that Anita is something much stronger (and dangerous) than she or anyone else knows.
Another part is Anita. She isn’t just a hard rock, lacking any humanity; she’s really truly affected by the blood and death she’s constantly surrounded by. She doesn’t casually walk up to corpses, she has to compose herself before she looks. She’s not callous, she’s just able to hide her horror, fear and sadness better than most people. We only know because we’re in her head.
“The Lunatic Cafe” is where the series, in my opinion, REALLY starts to pick up (read the other books “Guilty Pleasures”, “The Laughing Corpse”, and “Circus Of The Damned” first, it WILL help.) The soap opera kicks into high gear with a rather twisted little love triangle, not to mention some unfinished business between Anita and a vamp named Gretchen. Plus we get more of an introduction to the lycanthropes (werebeasts) of the city, their social structure, and the whole host of problems that go with THAT.
The novel itself is also pretty good, with the mystery at its center rather clever. Although she doesn’t really play fair (we’re not given much in the way of clues to possibly solve this mystery on our own), Hamilton does have a satisfactory solution. Like the other books so far, it’s got a lightning-fast pace; poor Anita NEVER gets any sleep, something always happens to her.
This is, in the end, fun junk, great for airports, beaches, and the living room. They aren’t classics, although they’d make great action movies, but the Anita Blake series is worth an occassional $7 now and again.
Aegis Nod @ 11:28 pm
No more marks should equal no more powers, right? Sure, whatever. But alas, Anita is getting stronger, much more so than anyone realizes.
The fourth book in the series is more of a soap box love triangle thing than about the gore and raising zombies. After the bloodiness and violence of the 3rd book, it’s a nice change, which came at a perfect time. Although Anita gets really beat up in this book and there is violence and death, the usual.
Oh, yeah… Finally, for the second time, Anita Blake-tough as nails Animator a.k.a. The Executioner-has found love. Really, she has. We all know him as Richard Zeeman a.k.a. jr. high teacher; a.k.a. werewolf and second in line for the pack. Who could resist an idealistic-at times really annoying, strong, dark handsome werewolf? Anita sure can’t, she can’t get enough of him. Hmmm, yeah.
Of course Jean-Claude is duly pissed and there is some…tension…between the two. By some occurrence, the current pack’s leader Marcus, whom Richard is fighting for leadership, offers Richard’s services to Jean-Claude. Since the wolf is Jean-Claude’s animal-each master vampire has power to call their own animal like Oliver had with snakes-he can also control werewolves as well. Basically, Richard is supposed to do what the Master of the City wants. I emphasize supposed to. Of course, that doesn’t happen. A lot of anger and jealousy happen’ here.
To add to the chaos of confusion, Marcus, the leader of the wolf pack and Raina, the alpha female wolf wants, needs Anita’s help in finding out who is killing lycanthropes, werewolves specifically. In the past weeks, 8 werewolves have disappeared or ended up in violent death. With help from Edward and some reluctance help from Richard, Anita plunges forth.
Mind you, there is one part of the story line dealing with porno/snuff film. That’s Edward’s reason for being, he’s been hired to kill the lycanthropes involved in the killing of a human girl in a film. It’s not crude, it’s just frankly stated. While not necessary, it does reveal a little part of Richard’s character, which is really important in the story.
The sacrifice? Her new relationship with Richard as well as Jean-Claude. As Anita learns more and more about the world of werewolves, she rethinks Richard’s proposal of marriage. Yeah, he asked her to marry him.
Jean-Claude of course is very pissed and threatens to kill Richard but Anita complies with his terms of dating BOTH of them at the same time, he may let Richard live. Oh, yeah, it gets really interesting. It’s the only reason I like Richard; you’ll enjoy what Richard brings to the story if your a Jean-Claude fan.
It’s interesting how Hamilton is able to only give small bits of information and yet maintain such intense interest. You really don’t know Jean-Claude or Anita, but each gives a small glimpse of who they are and what they are, what they believe. Great writing at its best. Great sci-fi fantasy with elements of moral, ethics and belief aspects about everything, yourself, the world. All the humor, sarcasm, intelligence, the aura of the other books is still ever so present. You won’t be disappointed; it just gets better and better.
Lawrance M. Bernabo @ 2:09 am
In this fourth Anita Blake novel our heroine no longer bears the marks of Jean-Claude or any other master vampire and is exploring a relationship with Richard, the middle school teacher. Of course there are problems: Richard is a werewolf whose pack leader is threatening to kill him, Jean-Claude will not take “no” for an answer and has a female vampire who wants to kill Anita, and Dolph wants help identifying the something that is killing lycanthropes (shapeshifters). “The Lunatic Cafe” is the name of the hangout where the werefolk meet and Anita is finding out more about their kind than she really wants to know. Good thing they want her help in finding out who is butchering their kind, although her involvement is certainly a mixed blessing.
As always with Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels, she managed to bring everything together by the end of the story. With each book in the series I become more convinced that the “Vampire Hunter” label is to attract fans of Buffy, but Anita is really an Animator (she was a Vampire Hunter in the time BEFORE the first novel) and these books are considerably more gruesome. One of the subplots in “The Lunatic Cafe” concerns a pornographic/snuff film with werewolves and a human girl, with Edward showing up to avenge her death. These are very intense horror novels and Buffy wannabees picking these up without having a clue as to what awaits them inside are not going to sleep for a week. Hamilton has created an alternative reality where monsters have legal rights, and she explores this world with creativity and intelligence. Her heroine endures a lot of physical damage in these books and the mysteries she investigates are always complex. This is a first rate hooror series that deserves its reputation and its growing following.
Tanya @ 3:53 am
I havnet read the series, my friends recommended “The Lunatic Cafe” to me so i started reading and i LOVED it! It’s face paced, intriguing and a great read! This may be the best book I’ve read in a long time! I cant wait to read more by Laurell K. Hamilton in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Novels and her other works!
Anonymous @ 6:18 am
Welcome to exotic world of Anita Blake, vampire executor. In this fourth book, we find Anita with a little time on her hands since business tends to fall off during the Christmas season. Funny, people aren’t as interested in raising the dead while they’re celebrating. Anita is in the beginning stages of her relationship with Richard, that cute junior high science teacher who just happens to be a lycanthrope and still avoiding the seductive master vampire (my favorite) Jean-Claude.
Things should be slow-right? Wrong! First off she has to deal with a jealous, female rival for Jean-Claude’s affections. Gretchen, is a female vampire who is determine to be the only lady in Jean-Claude’s life. Gretchen’s view on competition? Easy, just kill them. Only Jean-Claude has forbidden it. Gretchen decides to do as she pleases, and she pleases to kill Anita. Next we have someone who is killing shape shifters. The local police think it’s a bear, but Anita knows enough about the supernatural to say otherwise. Then we have Richard trying to hide a growing internal conflict with the lycanthropes. It seems Richard is next in line to lead the pack, but to do so he must challenge the current leader and kill him. Richard doesn’t want to do this, but faces being killed himself. Last we have Raina, the seductive lycanthrope and Gabriel, the sadist lycanthrope, who are making porn films featuring members of their pack. Who cares that some of their films just happen to turn into snuff films?
What’s a girl to do? If you’re Anita Blake, you set out to deal with jealous vampire girlfriends, try to make the man in your life see he shouldn’t keep secrets from you, and help the police find who is murdering innocent people. If you haven’t read Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, find book one, get started, and be sure to read them order. As someone who doesn’t normally read this genre of writing, I was fascinated enough to buy and read all nine books in a two week span (thanks to fellow reviewers JP and Joss). One word of warning, this series seduces you. I don’t think many will be able to read the first book without wanting all of them!