Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #02 - The Laughing Corpse

Laurell K. Hamilton

For the series over view and the other Anita Blake Vampire Hunter reviews click the following link. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

The second Anita Blake novel, is named after a new business that Jean Claude has opened, branching out into something a little he opens a Comedy club called The Laughing Corpse, many of the stand up acts are Vampire comedians, with really crappy jokes, fortunately they can resort to mind tricks to win over the crowd.

On the night that Anita attends the club there is a double act on, an animator and his zombie. The animator loses control of his zombie and Anita has to step in to get it back under control before anyone gets hurt, this basically has bugger all to do with the over all story but it does explain the book's title.

This story starts with Anita being approached via the company she works for (Animators, Incorporated) to raise a zombie for a hug sum of money, the problem is it is an old corpse and to raise the required energy a human sacrifice will be required. Anita refuses the offer.

Aside from this there is also some sort of flesh eating zombie on the loose. The Police have called Anita in to help with the case, they need to find the person responsible for raising it and Anita is the expert they turn to in these situations.

Can't go into this one too deeply as it is still at the point when the books were short and I don't want to spoil things, because I have forgotten large chunks of what I read and discussing most of the really cool bits that I remember will give away the ending.