Anita Blake Vampire Hunter

Audio/Books

Anita Blake Vampire Hunter: By Laurell K Hamilton

Read by Kimberly Alexis or Cynthia Holloway.


Book 1: Guilty Pleasures - Read by Kimberly Alexis

The first novel, Guilty Pleasures, introduces Anita and her world. Anita is blackmailed by Nikolaos, the vampire Master of the City, into investigating a series of vampire murders. During the course of this investigation, we learn that Jean-Claude, another master vampire, is interested in Anita and gives her two of the four marks necessary to make her Jean-Claude's "human servant." We also learn that while Anita can usually guess the age of vampires, she cannot get a read on Jean-Claude's age. Anita identifies the murderer, but by that point has sufficiently antagonized Nikolaos and her underlings that she expects to be killed. With help from Edward, a human associate who specializes in assassinating supernatural targets, and Rafael the Rat King, Anita kills Nikolaos and many of her followers. To her surprise, Jean-Claude becomes the new Master of the City.


Book 2: The Laughing Corpse - Read by Kimberly Alexis
In The Laughing Corpse, Anita assists the police in investigating a series of murders where animators are key suspects, leading to an exploration of various types of zombie raisers. With Anita fast becoming a target from both a power hungry Vaudun Priestess and a millionaire wanting Anita to raise his ancestor Anita is forced to continue her investigation. Anita avoids Jean-Claude during most of the book. To save her own life, Anita performs a human sacrifice in order to raise an entire graveyard, and using the zombies as a weapon, kills two people. This is the first time Anita uses magic to kill a person. At the end, however, Jean-Claude informs Anita that even he can feel her power calling to him. This means that she is not just an Animator, with power over dead bodies, but a necromancer, with power over all the (un)dead.


Book 3: Circus of the Damned - Read by Kimberly Alexis
Circus of the Damned opens with Anita and Jean Claude discussing their relationship (or lack thereof). Jean Claude wants Anita to accept that she is his human servant; Anita wants Jean Claude to leave her alone. Anita meets some of Jean Claude's other vampires and hangers-on, including a human named Richard Zeeman.
Anita is contacted by a representative of Humans First, a rival master vampire named Mr Oliver, and Edward: all want to know the identity and daytime resting place of the Master of the City. Anita initially resists, but becomes angry enough with Jean Claude to tell Mr Oliver. Deciding in the end that Jean Claude is the lesser of the two evils, she and Edward help defeat Mr Oliver. In the end, the vampire marks were removed; Jean Claude admits that Anita is not his human servant. Anita also obtains her apprentice, Larry Kirkland.
Anita and Richard have their first date in this book. At the end of the book it is revealed that Richard is a werewolf.


Book 4: The Lunatic Cafe - Read by Kimberly Alexis
In The Lunatic Cafe Edward asks Anita's help in identifying two killers: shapeshifters who starred in a snuff film. Area shapeshifters, including Marcus (Ulfric of the local werewolf pack) and Rafael the Rat King, want Anita to find a serial killer who is targeting lycanthropes. Anita meets other shapeshifters, including Raina and Gabriel, and learns more about werewolf culture while resolving these issues.
The love triangle between Anita, Richard, and Jean Claude continues in this book. Anita agrees to officially date both Richard and Jean Claude. She becomes engaged to Richard, even as she realizes they have serious differences - and not just because he's a werewolf.



Book 5: Bloody Bones - Read by Kimberly Alexis
Bloody Bones sees Anita travel to Branson, Missouri, where she quickly becomes enmeshed in a series of supernatural murders and disappearances. Anita's relationship with Jean-Claude takes a large step forward in this novel. For the first time, Anita begins to see Jean Claude as a person, not just a source of information. Her role as Larry's mentor is also further developed and she is forced to relive the trauma of her mother's death.



Book 6: The Killing Dance - Read by Kimberly Alexis
Anita is the target of a half-million dollar contract killing. The Killing Dance provides a notable turning point in her relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard. Richard, with his desperate attempts to remain "human", represents the side of Anita that rebels against the "darker" elements of her nature, while Jean-Claude, who has long accepted his demons and draws his powers from death, represents the part of her that accepts them. Anita is also pushed into the role of "Master of the City's girlfriend" in the press for PR purposes. Ultimately Anita realizes that Richard's desire to remain "nice" and "normal" had placed himself and the others in even more danger, and she runs to Jean-Claude, who is at least able to protect himself from danger.

The Killing Dance is also a turning point for the series in several other ways:

* Anita has accepted being Jean-Claude's "declared human servant" at the beginning of the book.
* Anita and Richard form a vampire triumvirate with Jean Claude, accepting the first three "marks". In addition, Jean Claude and Richard announce that they are allies within the supernatural community. Taken together, these changes make it impossible for Anita to completely separate her life from Jean Claude or Richard.
* Anita kills the werewolf lupa Raina and the wereleopard leader Gabriel in self-defense, resolving some unsettled conflicts from The Lunatic Cafe.
* Richard becomes the Ulfric, or leader, of his pack.
* Anita and Jean-Claude become lovers.


Book 7: Burnt Offerings - Read by Kimberly Alexis
In Burnt Offerings Anita and Richard help Jean-Claude fend off a challenge from the Vampire Council. Anita's metaphysical ties to Jean-Claude and Richard are strengthened during this battle; she "feels" his beast inside her. Richard affirms that he considers Anita the lupa of his pack, although they do not reconcile romantically.
Anita is also pulled further into the lycanthrope world when she discovers the local wereleopards need her to take their former leader's place as protector.


Book 8: Blue Moon - Read by Kimberly Alexis
In Blue Moon, Anita juggles being a leader among both the werewolves and the wereleopards while investigating why Richard was framed for rape. Anita and Richard reconcile during the book, with Richard offering to accept Anita's continued involvement with Jean Claude as long as Anita accepts that Richard isn't monogamous either.
Also during Blue Moon:
* Anita acquires a magical mentor, the Wiccan Marianne. (Marianne is not a lycanthrope but works with the local werewolf pack in Tennessee.)
* Marianne and her pack's Ulfric, Verne, begin teaching Anita how to be a better leader of the wereleopards.
* Anita's faith in God, and herself as a Christian, is reaffirmed when she faces down a demon with prayer and Bible recitation.
* We learn Damian is showing signs of being Anita's vampire servant and that Jean Claude gains power from sex. The latter frightens Anita enough that she demands a break from both Jean Claude and Richard; Marianne helps her to temporarily close off her metaphysical "marks" to them.


Book 9: Obsidian Butterfly - Read by Kimberly Alexis
Anita travels to New Mexico in Obsidian Butterfly to help Edward, aka Ted Forrester, investigate a series of supernatural attacks. To Anita's shock, she discovers that "Ted" has a fiancee, Donna, who is a new age bookstore owner. Donna does not know Edward is an assassin. Donna becomes a target by trying to stop an unauthorized (but profitable) archaeological dig. Before this is resolved, Donna's children are kidnapped and abused. Becca's hand is broken, and 14-year-old Peter is raped. Anita is glad that she does not have children, and worries that Peter and Becca will not recover.
Anita acquires a new power from the vampire Obsidian Butterfly, the first instance of her picking up a power from a vampire. She is nearly killed by another vampire; her "closing" of the marks with Jean-Claude and Richard has weakened her abilities, making her more vulnerable to metaphysical attacks. By the end of the book Anita is convinced that she needs to return to her relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard.


Book 10: Narcissus in Chains - Read by Cynthia Holloway
Narcissus in Chains opens with Anita's decision to re-establish her relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard. She discovers that her lengthy separation has caused significant damage to several of her friends and allies, both emotionally and also in terms of their supernatural powers. A number of complications to her attempts to repair this damage arise:
* Anita is accidentally but gravely injured by one of the wereleopards and develops secondary signs of lycanthropy.
* Anita develops the ardeur, a rare power seen only in vampires of Belle Morte's bloodline, after Jean-Claude used it to "feed" through her. Although this power allows Anita to draw energy from lust, it also requires her to have sex multiple times per day, at least in its early stages.
* In Anita's absence, Damian, her vampire servant, has become a feral killing machine.
* Richard has attempted to substitute democracy for the strictly hierarchical nature of the local werewolf pack. Jacob, a new werewolf in town, seeks to take advantage of this chaos by planning to kill first Sylvie, then Richard. The eventual split would probably destroy the pack.
* A new alpha wereleopard, Micah has arrived with his pard of wereleopards, and seeks to merge groups with Anita and become her Nimir-Raj and mate.
* Micah and Anita have sex within hours of meeting her because of the unexpected appearance of the ardeur in a shower scene.
Anita helps Damian to regain his sanity, assuming her position as Damian's master and rendering him the first "vampire servant" in centuries. She also comes close to reconciling with Richard, but Richard ultimately leaves her after she uses the ardeur to feed on him, declaring that, like Anita herself, he will not allow himself to be used as food. Anita accepts Micah as her lover and Nimir-Raj. Micah, who appears willing to accommodate any desire of Anita's, becomes part of a ménage à trois with Jean-Claude, allowing Jean-Claude to feed on him.
Anita accepts that her romantic relationship with Richard is finally over. She is still the Lupa of the Thronos Rokke clan, but also becomes its Bolverk.
Anita is not herself a wereleopard, but her affinity with the leopards apparently means that they are her animal to call as if she were herself a master vampire. Anita and Micah are happily leading their wereleopards and living together with Nathaniel, who also acts as Anita's pomme de sang, feeding off his lust, although they have not yet had intercourse. Anita, Micah and Jean-Claude also act as a happy threesome, but, being Anita, she doubts that happiness can last long. The themes of complex relationships and increasing power are continued in subsequent books in the series.
One of the monsters
Anita realizes that she is evolving into that which she once hunted. In Cerulean Sins, she muses:
"One of my favorite things about hanging out with the monsters is the healing. Straight humans seemed to get killed on me a lot. Monsters survived. Let's hear it for the monsters."


Book 11: Cerulean Sins - Read by Cynthia Holloway
In Cerulean Sins Anita assists the police in tracking a lycanthrope serial killer. This is complicated by her close relationships with the "monsters" which puts her at odds with Rudolf Storr, the head of RPIT, who attempts to have Jason committed to a secure lycanthrope facility. Anita manipulates Storr into revealing his prejudice on tape; he ends up on administrative leave, and Jason is released on his own recognizance.
Anita and Jean-Claude outmaneuver Belle Morte by taking Asher to their bed in a ménage à trois, making Asher their lover and therefore immune to most of Belle Morte's advances. More alarmingly, Anita begins to believe that Belle Morte is planning a war against the Mother of Darkness, the oldest and most powerful of the world's vampires. Although Anita and Jean Claude do their best to avoid that conflict, the Mother of Darkness is beginning to awaken from a centuries-long sleep, and seems interested in Anita.



Book 12: Incubus Dreams - Read by Cynthia Holloway
In Incubus Dreams Anita assists the police in finding a group of vampires that are killing strippers, eventually going into their condo with a SWAT team.
Anita makes considerable progress with her metaphysical problems as she learns that she can partially control the ardeur by drawing power from others' lust and by ensuring that her other desires, such as physical hunger, do not go unfulfilled. However, she accidentally forms another triumvirate with Damien and Nathaniel, this time with her (not Jean-Claude) as the power focus.
Anita's personal life resolves in a number of ways. She "accidentally" has sex with Damian with unusual concequences. She accepts Nathaniel as the fourth of her concurrent lovers, and she and Richard also agree to renew their relationship. Although Nathaniel and Micah appear to accept or want Anita as their only lover, Anita reluctantly agrees to accept Richard's decision to date other people, and allows Jean-Claude to begin feeding his lust from others, at least psychically.


Book 13: Micah - Read by Cynthia Holloway
Anita's relationship with Micah is focused on specifically in the novel of the same name. Anita also continues to wrestle with her recent increase in power, first attempting to deal with the ardeur and second, wrestling with the vast increase in her own powers as a necromancer. Anita is now so powerful that her attempt to raise a single person threatened to raise every corpse in the cemetery.
A blood test reveals that Anita carries four strains of lycanthropy: wolf, leopard, lion, and one unknown strain. However, she is not a lycanthrope despite being a carrier.



Book 14: Danse Macabre - Read by Cynthia Holloway
Danse Macabre sees a possible pregnancy threatening to derail her life, even as she prepares to help host several visiting Masters of the City in honor of the finale performance of the vampire ballet troupe Danse Macabre.
The evidence that Anita may become a shape-shifter is growing; whether she will be wolf, lion, leopard, or something else is unknown. She resists changing shape by "giving her beast" to a lycanthrope. Because she can only give "her" lion to a werelion, this brings her into more contact with the local werelion pride.
Jean Claude and Anita determine that the ardeur is "seeking" food: specifically it may have shaped Anita's, Micah's, Nathaniel's, and Damian's personalities to make them more compatible partners for one another. It also encourages the visiting Master of the City of Chicago, who had been exiled by Belle Morte, to maneuver Anita and Jean Claude into feeding her ardeur on him. Anita is surprised that feeding on the Master of the City allows them to feed on his vampires and wereanimals as well.
In her personal life, Anita wrestles with her jealousy of her lovers taking other lovers, particularly in the case of Jean-Claude and Asher. She also accepts that she is a succubus and a vampire, in that she feeds off others.


Book 15: The Harlequin - Read by Cynthia Holloway
The Harlequin shows Anita and Jean Claude coping with a threat from Vampire Council enforcers. Desperate, Anita calls Edward for assistance. Edward arrives the same day, bringing Olaf and Peter (now 16), who we last saw in Obsidian Butterfly.
The Harlequin exists to police and punish vampire leaders who violate various rules, such as Malcolm's resistance to the blood oath. It was formed by the Mother of All Darkness, modeled in style on the Commedia dell'arte and by action on the wild hunt. It is composed of very old and powerful vampires who are capable of not just manipulating the behaviors and emotions of humans or younger vampires and lycanthropes, but of Jean-Claude, Anita, and Richard. Under this influence, Richard and Jean-Claude nearly kill each other, and Anita must also be repeatedly resuscitated. Anita keeps them alive by feeding on first Rafael (and through him, all the wererats in the city); Belle Morte; and later, all the swanmanes in the US via Donovan. Anita's second triumvirate also comes through, with Nathaniel and Damien "eating for five" so as to provide healing energy to Anita—and the others through her.
However, The Harlequin appears not to be following its own rules, so by vampire law Jean Claude's people can strike back. Edward doesn't actually kill a Harlequin, Anita does through a psychic link that she accidentally creates while trying to remove a sort of vampire spell that one of the Harlequin has put on her in order to keep track of her and Jean Claude's etc. movements. They subsequently end up killing the "human servant" of that vampire after Anita has fed off of Donovan the king of the swan manes. They recover in time to face off with the remaining members in Malcolm's Church of Eternal Life. They not only succeed, but determine that The Harlequin members were planning to take over Jean-Claude's territory and not operating on official Council orders.
Additionally, Anita almost allows the Mother of Darkness to become a full flesh being by allowing her anger to fester.
Anita also leaves her former allies, the werelions, to potential death. At a point where Anita and many of her other allies were injured, she asks to have sex with the werelion Rex Joseph so that she could gain the power to heal without the Munin. The Rex refused because he is married and values being faithful to his wife. Also there were rumors spread about Anita by the lions she refused because they weren't powerful enough for her inner lion. In a scene reminiscent of The Godfather series, Anita decides that this is a betrayal of their alliance and decides to abandon Joseph in favor of another werelion.

Book 16: Blood Noir - Read by Cynthia Holloway
Released May 27, 2008:
"Jason Schuyler is a werewolf. He's also one of Anita Blake's best friends, and sometimes her lover. And right now he needs her—not to be a vampire hunter. or a federal marshal, or a necromancer, or even for her rank in the werewolf pack, but because his father is dying. He needs Anita because she's a pretty woman who loves him, who can make him look like an everyday guy, who agree to go home with him and help him say good-bye to the abusive father he never loved. The fact that Jason is about as much an everyday guy as Anita is a pretty woman is something they figure they can keep under wraps for a couple of days in a small town. How hard can that be?
Really by now, Anita Blake should know better.
Marmee Noir, ancient mother of all vampires, picks this weekend to make a move. Somehow she has cut the connection that binds Anita and Jean-Claude, leaving Jean-Claude unable to sense what is happening. Dangerous even as she sleeps, buried in darkness for a thousand years somewhere beneath the old country of Europe, Marmee Noir reaches out toward power. She has attacked Anita before, but never like this. In Anita she senses what she needs to make her enemies tremble..."
- From the inside cover of Blood Noir
Things get even more complicated when Jason is constantly being mistaken for the son of the towns local celebrity, Governor Summerland. Not only do Jason and Anita find themselves in the middle of a media frenzy, but also they are threatened by the complicated vampire-human love triangle that has been plaguing the Summerland family (and most recently Keith Summerland) for generations. When the danger and the news coverage hit a climax at the same time, Anita and Jason are left carefully maneuvering around truck loads of drama and politics, not to mention they are just trying to survive. Jean-Claude's reputation, the American weretiger population, Jason's family values, Keith's impending marriage, and the Governor's bid for president are the least of their problems and just the tip of the metaphysical iceberg.

* It is revealed why Jason's dad gave him such a hard time growing up.
* Marmee Noire rolls Anita for two days, causing her to have sex with two weretigers Crispin, a 21-year-old white tiger which becomes her tiger to call and Alex Pinn, son of the queen from the red-tiger-clan.
* Jason becomes Anita's wolf to call.
* Richard is released from the anger he inherited from Anita, but inherits his own version of the Ardeur instead.
* Anita releases Richard from his anger and feeds on this anger, gaining yet another new ability.
* Anita begins to doubt her feelings towards Jason.



Book 17: Skin Trade - Read by Cynthia Holloway
Released on June 2, 2009.
When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it's worse than she thought. Ten officers and one executioner have been slain—paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where's she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward. It's a good thing he always has her back, because when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses "tiger" too strongly to ignore it. The weretigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher.
* Marmee Noir supposedly meets her end in this book through a bomb that blows up her physical form. It is also revealed that she used to be part shapeshifter, part necromancer.
* Vittorio reappears and turns out to be more old and powerful then previously thought, the old love of Marmee Noir, Father of the Day as she was Mother of the Night. He tries to make Anita his human servant but is unsuccessful. He is killed in the end by the weretigers of Vegas with Anita's help.
* In this book we also find out that Requiem has requested Jean Claude to move to another town where he will be away from Anita and be able to maybe become second-in-command of a city.
* Anita meets another 'living' vampire who is a member of the Vegas SWAT team. Nicknamed 'Cannibal' he feeds off memories from people he touches. When he touches Anita, she temporarilly steals his power and is able to also feed off of one of his memories. At the end of the book we discover that he can use his power to wipe out all of the memories of a person so that they are a blank slate, his victim end up lying on the floor with a blank look in her eyes.
* Olaf returns in this book as US marshal Otto Jeffries and he hints that he would be willing to try to have a 'normal' romance with Anita, but he still creeps her out too much for anything to really develop.
* Anita had sex with Wicked and Truth to feed the ardeur and Anita asks the brothers to kill her if the Mother of Darkness possesses her or if the ardeur overcomes her.


Book 18: Flirt - Read by Kimberly Alexis
Released February 2, 2010. Anita is contacted by two wealthy clients, both wanting their deceased spouses raised but for very different purposes. Anita denies both, as the purpose of each request repulses her. Later she is a held at gunpoint by a pair of professional Werelion thugs who have sharpshooters monitoring her loved ones. Their purpose is to bring her to their client, but it isn't the one she thought it would be.
Anita ends up gaining a "slave" after her Ardeur is purposely used to break one of the werelions' will, gaining her another man in her life. Nicky became her Bride.
The title of Flirt is about when she is instructed by Nathaniel on how to flirt with a waiter.


Book 19: Bullet - read by Kimberly Alexis
Released June 1, 2010.
Anita Blake is back in St. Louis and trying to live a normal life-as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a U. S. Marshal. There are lovers, friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all the ordinary happiness a vampire from Anita's past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, killed in an explosion, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, their dark creator. It's hard to kill a god. This dark goddess has reached out to her here-in St. Louis, home of everyone Anita loves most. The Mother of All Darkness has decided she has to act now or never, to control Anita, and all the vampires in America.
The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with Anita and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to immigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken. Anita is about to learn a whole new meaning to sharing her body, one that has nothing to do with the bedroom. And if the Mother of All Darkness can't succeed in taking over Anita's body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again. Even Belle Morte, not always a friend to Anita, has sent word: "Run if you can..."

Book 20: Hit List
This title will be released on June 7, 2011.