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The Barnes & Noble Review
Laurell K. Hamilton's tough-as-nails vampire executioner and necromancer, Anita Blake, is back with a vengeance in the 11th book of Hamilton's wildly popular series. In Cerulean Sins, the sexy federal marshal is faced with a plethora of problems all at once.
A serial murderer is on the loose around St. Louis, and from the looks of the gruesome crime scenes, it appears to be the work of a rogue werewolf or some kind of insane shape-shifter. Anita's friend Jason is implicated by Dolph Storr, the ill-tempered head of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team, who appears to be on the verge of a very violent nervous breakdown. While investigating the crime scenes, Anita realizes that two suspicious men are tailing her, and one turns out to be a known international terrorist. The complicated, centuries-long relationship between Jean-Claude and Asher is at a breaking point, and Anita decides to do anything (and I do mean anything) to save not only their relationship with each other but also her relationship with them.
What makes these Anita Blake novels so much fun? Every novel is breakneck-paced, action-packed, and filled with plenty of suspense and unadulterated sensuality. Add to that Hamilton's wicked sense of humor and her adeptness at character building, and this series becomes purely addictive.
Any fan of vampire-related fiction that hasn't already discovered this series should make it a point (no pun intended) to do so as soon as possible.
Paul Goat Allen
Kirkus Reviews
Hamilton abandons her Los Angeles Faerie Princess/private detective Meredith Gentry to return to her long-running St. Louis heroine, Anita Blake, who hunts rogue vampires, sleeps with a werewolf lover, and at times reanimates zombies (as last seen in Narcissus in Chains, 2001). A licensed vampire executioner, Anita herself bears the mark of the wolf and has left a love union with ravishingly beautiful vampire Jean-Claude, her Master, and Micah, shape-shifting King of the St. Louis Leopard pack. As it happens, Anita's union with these two lovers has had a synergistic effect in deepening her own powers and insight into the supernatural. She's also mixed up with her ex-fiancé Richard, an Alpha werewolf, although the two have been apart for a month. All this is set slightly in the future, and Anita is a consultant both for the city and for federal agents bent on investigating preternatural crime. In an ironic scene, we watch her reanimate a corpse to determine whether its previous inhabitant died of a self-inflicted gunshot, a question that bears legally on his will and insurance. When Anita is visited by master vampire Asher, she finds she's up against the European Council of Vampires, which has sent knockout gorgeous but dangerous Musette to check on Jean-Claude. Musette represents Belle Morte, the 600-year-old fountainhead of modern bloodsuckers, to whom Jean-Claude bears allegiance. Does Belle Morte want to move in on St. Louis? Asher warns that killing Musette-or, heaven forbid, Belle Morte-is simply not done. Anita is never logical about her love life, especially her ties with Richard, who dumped her because he longs to be human and she's much too bloodthirsty and comfortable withmonsters. The feds call Anita in when something un-human perpetrates a series of murders. As with the SM joint Narcissus, the new deaths turn on a fun center, Cerulean Sins, an erotic video store for vampires that leads us to father-abused child vampires Valentina and Bartolomé. Sexy as a blue vein. Author tour. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz/Writers House
