The first book in the Anita Blake series grabs you from page one and refuses to let go. Welcome to Anita's universe, our world but with a twist. Ever since the case Addison v. Clark vampirism has been legal and we received a, "revised version of what life was, and death wasn't". In a world where not only do vampires have the right to vote (or almost do atleast), lycanthropsy is a disease and if you have it you can be discriminated against (like if you have HIV), we need a hero. Enter, Anita Blake the vampires call her the Executioner what she calls them isn't repeatable. She tries to make the world a little safer each day for humans like us. Besides being a liscensed vampire hunter (she needs a warrant to kill a vampire or else it is murder) she also is an animator who raises zombies to clarify wills and help with other legal cases.
Anita makes it very clear in the beginning of the book she has no sympathy for vampires. Unfortunately, the vampires know this too, so to get Anita to investigate a case that involves a string of murdered master vampires they have to threaten to kill her friend, Catherine. With a life at stake Anita descends into the dark night world of St. Louis on a journey that takes her to Guilty Pleasures, the first vampire strip club; a "freak" party (orgy), and a dungeon.
One thing that Laurell K. Hamilton is wonderful at is making Anita seem believeable by surrounding her with various subplots involving interesting characters. She tries to keep a bunch of balls in the air at once and she succeeds without dropping any, which is a real treat. First up is Jean-Claude the master vampire who owns Guilty Pleasures and oozes sexuality. He is bent on getting Anita to join his side for eternity because a vampire that has the Executioner at his back is something to be feared in the vamp community. He also tells Anita he likes her and there is a sexual tension between them. However, it is not pushed very far in this book since the majority of this book has him trying to survive off-camera so to speak. Although, he does mark Anita so she is on her way to becoming his human servant. It is a complicated thing to explain but basically a human servant is linked to the master vampire and they have a bond that allows them to help each other out. The bond also keeps the servant from aging like the vampire and has a few added perks where it is harder for the bad guys to hurt Anita.
Another crucial character in this book is Edward, Anita's sort of friend who also is a hired killer. She may not trust him but he's good to have around in a hairy situation. Edward is the guy next door about 5' 8" with blonde hair and blue eyes, but underneath the external innocence is a cold, efficient killer. Just proves how deceiving looks can really be. In this case he wants to kill the Master of the City and he thinks Anita can help him find the master's resting place. Anita knows where the place is but since she has to work for the head vamp to find the psycho lunatic who is killing all the other vampires and if she doesn't find the psycho the monsters kill Catherine. Therefore, she can't really give away the location even if she wanted to without hurting Catherine. Edward gives Anita time to "think" about her decision before he comes back to torture her. This is why they are only sort of friends.
An interesting new type of entry to this genre although I'm not sure what genre you could enter this into. You can find Anita Blake books under the Science Fiction or Horror sections at most books stores but this is also a mystery and romantic series. Either way GUILTY PLEASURES is an interesting book and a great jump start to a fascinating series is you can take your gore with a sense of humor.
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