Book #52 -- that's the year, baby!

The Laughing Corpse
by Laurell K. Hamilton


Boy, and you thought the first one was bloody? This one was easily the goriest, most gruesome piece of writing I've seen outside of Stephen King and some of the schlock-fest fiction I've read in the past when no better option was available -- you know, trapped in a waiting room kind of thing. Actually, probably working in the discount bookstore in Esco, most likely.

Anyway, the second Anita Blake book was as good as the first, and that was a good sign. Because the second book is in some ways very unlike the first: in the first one, the murder mystery takes a backseat -- way back, like hanging off the rear bumper of one of those double-length buses with the accordion joint in the middle -- to the vampire stuff, which is very scary and shows that the vampires are incredibly nasty and overpowering and no human really has any chance. At the end of the first book, Anita feels small to the reader. And that's good, because it makes the character human, and when she says at the very end of the book that line -- "I don't date vampires. I slay them." -- it sounds desperate, like she's whistling in the dark and she knows it, because Jean-Claude already has such a claim on her, both in terms of his mind control and because of her attraction to him. It makes her sympathetic.

This book made her badass. The murder mystery took center stage, because at every pause in the action, back it came with an even bloodier and more horrifying murder scene -- and since the very first murder scene begins with a corpse that is nothing but a section of ribs, and a blood-soaked teddy bear, saying that each scene is more horrifying than the last is saying a lot. And more so than the first book, the murder mystery and the intrigue element complemented each other, because this time, the intrigue involved the killers and Anita, and so her dealings with the evil folk brought her closer to solving the murders.

As before, the villain was great -- both the evil voodoo queen and the actual murderer -- and the final confrontation was totally sweet. I definitely enjoyed this one, even more than the first, and now I'm eager to read on.