Anita Blake hunts killer zombie in Laurell K. Hamilton's Laughing Corpse

November 5, 3:52 PMTampa Books ExaminerJulianne Draper

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Laughing Corpse cover art
cover art by Craig White/Jove Books circa 2002

What would you do for a million dollars?

OK? What would you do if you knew there was a killer zombie on the loose, and you were the only one who might be able to stop it? Would you take the million-dollar case, or the one that might save a city’s families? And in the course of investigating a friend’s death, would you deal with voodoo practitioners, both from in town and out, whom you’d rather just stay away from?

If you’re Anita Blake, you do it; you speak to your friend’s family, even if their beliefs make you cringe; you attend a meeting or two with the greedy man offering you a million to raise his long-dead ancestors, then you take another meeting with a local voodoo queen whose entourage includes a couple very twitchy, heavily armed drug dealers. Yes, Anita does all this, ignoring the niggling feeling they give her, why? Because she can’t seem to get the vision of the young victim of some all-too-recent, too-close-to-home, zombie murders out of her head. And she hopes one or the other can give her the tools she needs to see the perpetrator brought to justice—whether it be divine justice or human, makes no difference to Anita. What does, is how she might have to go about rendering that justice, if she’ll survive a horde of zombies intent on killing her, if she can save the life of the former lover of the greedy man, in the process, and of course; and most importantly, if she can live down having to call in the assistance of the one person she’d much rather have forget her very existence: Jean-Claude. And can she do it all without losing her head, and keeping her honor in tact? More importantly, will her beloved collection of stuffed penguins survive the latest onslaught?

You’ll have to read to find out.

The Laughing Corpse is the second title in Laurell K. Hamilton's popular Anita Blake series, and with all the humor and gothic touches of the first, and then some. I did find the ending a bit awkward, but all in all, it’s still a fun, and intriguing read, and will have Anita Blake fans cheering their heroine on. I think it could even be read, if you have not read its predecessor; and yet, it’s so much more fun, if you’ve read the first. Do give The Laughing Corpse (and of course, Guilty Pleasures!) a try. I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised.

This series is wildly popular, so I have to warn you, used copies and library copies might be a little hard to come by.  But, of course, you can more than likely find copies at your local bookstores, or of course, at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, borders.com, or Books-A-Million.

And if you're curious to read a little about the the opening volume in this saga, you can find our review of Guilty Pleasures here.

For More on Laurell K. Hamilton, see this page at Random House.

Or her official site,or her blog

or the Penguin/Putnam Laurell K. Hamilton site