Product Description

Readers can’t get enough of the #1 New York Times bestselling author.

A favor for Jason, vampire hunter Anita Blake’s werewolf lover, puts her in the center of a fullblown scandal that threatens master-vampire Jean- Claude’s reign—and makes her a pawn in an ancient vampire queen’s new rise to power.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2097 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The florid 16th Anita Blake novel (after 2007's The Harlequin) updates Anita's endlessly erotic adventures as a living vampire with many weird lovers. Anita serves her vampire sweetie Jean-Claude, Master of the City of St. Louis, obsessed with feeding him and her own need to leech off of others' sexual pleasure or ardeur while retaining her rep as vampire executioner (despite the seeming conflict of interest), U.S. marshal and necromancer. She's also accompanying her bed-buddy Jason Schuyler to visit his dying estranged father in North Carolina. After arriving, Jason's mistaken for his rich cousin Keith Summerland, who's ditched his bride-to-be to run off with the wife of a vampire Master, giving Anita a case to solve between wild orgies with wereanimals. Hamilton chronicles Anita's escapades with a growing air of ennui, which longtime readers can't help sharing as sex increasingly takes the place of plot and character development. (June)
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Review
Praise for The Harlequin: “Breathtaking.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“A hardcore guilty pleasure.”
—Times (London)

“Spellbinding and provocative.”
—Best Reviews

About the Author
Laurell K. Hamilton is the New York Times bestselling author of the Meredith Gentry novels: A Kiss of Shadows, A Caress of Twilight, Seduced by Moonlight, A Stroke of Midnight, Mistral’s Kiss, as well as fifteen acclaimed Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novels. She is a full-time writer; she lives in a suburb of St. Louis with her family.

Customer Reviews

How can such a great series go so bad?
The Anita Blake series is one of my favorites. At least the first ten books or so. After this one, I officially give up. What happened to the spook squad? Isn't she supposed to be working with the police? But all of those characters just disappeared without an explanation several books ago, so that Anita could spend 4oo or 500 pages having sex with hot guys. Usually several of them at once. I get that considering what a prude she was in the first book, that some might actually consider this character development. I think I'm done with the series.

Another Great Book About Anita Blake!
Blood Noir was one of my favorite books in the Anita Blake series. First of all the fact that you get to see more from Jason, who I have thought was one of the most lovable werewolves. Laurell K. Hamilton has a way of mixing romance with action and adventure in a way that doesn't seem completely pornographic. The story was well written and kept my interest from the second I picked the book up till I read the last word.

I've read a lot of mixed reviews about this book and I can't seem to help but wonder why. I read quite a few bad reviews right here on this site before I read the book and thought they just might be right. Although, when I started reading the book I knew they were wrong. The things they seem to find wrong with the book I couldn't figure out how exactly they came to those conclusions, it was as if we were reading completely different books.

One of the main reasons people didn't seem to like it is because it's so much different from how the stories were when she first started the series. All I have to say to that is of course it's going to be different. If she kept the stories the same book after book there wouldn't be 16 fabulous Anita Blake stories that seem to be just as well received.

In the humble opinion of an avid book reader, and lover, Blood Noir by Laurell K Hamilton is a must read for all fans. By that I mean fans of: Laurell K Hamilton, Anita Blake, Vampires, the Supernatural, or just books in general.

A comeback of sorts?
I collected first editions of the first 10 Anita Blake series - in duplicate. However, the succeeding books in the series degenerated into such gratuitous sexual permutations with a few pages of plot thrown in that I'm selling one set, and have passed on the "opportunity" to acquire more books in the series. This book is beginning to reverse the trend of those later volumes. Now if Hamilton could only allow Anita Blake to share the pages with a few female leads, if not strong characters, and keep the sexual proclivities to those that advance the plot . . .