Bloody Bones, by Laurell K. Hamilton
Bloody Bones, by Laurell K. Hamilton
Book 5 – Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series
Reviewed by Ciara
Bloody Bones follows quickly on from the action of The Lunatic Café. Fans of the French vampire Jean Claude, as wells as fans of the murder and crime and investigation that characterized the first few installments in the series, will love this book.
Anita travels to Branson, Missouri to raise an entire cemetery in order to settle a dispute about the ownership of the land. A property developer wants to build a high-class resort, while a local man, Magnus Bouvier, is very insistent that the land must not be disturbed, but is vague on the reasons why.
Anita doesn’t want to travel, but in her own opinion, she is the only person in the country who might be capable of doing it.
While in Branson, Anita and Larry are asked to help investigate a local vamp kill. While hunting for the vampire responsible, Anita finds that he was able to shapeshift into a dog and enter a house through the dog door.
She calls Jean Claude for help, who explains that the vampire is called Xavier, and is an “exotic” type of vampire that humans don’t know about. Not only that, but he is a pedophile, which makes Anita even more determined to hunt him down.
This book is an important one in the overall series. Jean Claude begins to play more and more of a role. He comes out to Branson and provides Anita with all sorts of information that make her job a little easier. He’s obviously becoming a more important character, and the impression is that Laurell K. Hamilton has big plans for him.
Richard appears only briefly at the start of the book, and I’m sorry to tell his fans, but I think that’s one of the reasons this book can be so hard- hitting and brutal. Jean- Claude is just better with the violence, and is a lot more three- dimensional than Richard. This book finally lets the reader truly examine the relationship between Jean- Claude and Anita. For the last four books, Anita has been running from Jean- Claude, so it’s refreshing to see them finally spend some time together and talk.
This is by far the best in the series, so far. Hamilton has returned to her style in the first book or two; fast- paced action with great characterization. Anita begins to develop into a fuller character, helped along by Larry. His tender- hearted and innocent approach to life sparks some compassion and empathy in Anita, but not enough for her to lose the no- nonsense, sarcastic aspect of her personality.
The action is every bit as enticing as the characters. The violence is gorey, the monsters are scary, the romance is complicated, and all the subplots weave together perfectly. A fine return to classic form for Laurell K. Hamilton and Anita Blake.
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