Laurell K. Hamilton
Bloody Bones (1996)
Anita Blake #5
Reviewed: 2000-09-25

Necromancer. As far as the undead and those dealing with magic are concerned, Anita Blake could have it tattooed on her forehead. Zombie raiser and licensed vampire executioner by trade, she's a necromancer by birth.

It's spring and Anita has been hired by a law firm to raise the dead at a family graveyard to settle a dispute over land ownership. Millions of dollars are at stake, and Anita may be the only animator powerful enough to perform the raising, so she leaves bustling St. Louis for the rural town of Branson, Missouri. On location it becomes readily apparent that her client hasn't been quite truthful towards her, and the dislike turns out to be mutual. Shortly after her arrival, Anita's sideline police work also catches up with her: Three teenagers are found cut up in the woods with some body parts missing. Of course there is absolutely no connection between the killings and the raising she has been hired for. Yeah, right.

The formula is at work again. A normal, if not quite routine job, in parallel with a police investigation into preternatural murders. And quickly the dead are piling up. There are fairies, ghosts, vampires with unusual preferences and uncommon abilities, and lots of carnage. Anita and some friends from her familiar entourage take on a vampire queen and yet another kind of monster new to the series.

Anita learns about an intimate weak spot of hers, keeps running from confronting the question whether she is as much the normal human she would like to be, earns the title of master, and her romantic life is still in a deadlock between a vampire (growing more likable over the course of the book) and a werewolf.

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