Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #04 - The Lunatic Cafe

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 fourth Anita Blake novel breaks a cycle; the title is not derived from the name of one of Jean Claude's venues, but is still a venue. This is actually a cafe/diner run by were creatures and most of the clientele are also were creatures (Lycanthropes).

The main story line in this novel is that a number of local Lycanthropes have gone missing, since being a know Lycanthrope will usually get you tossed out of your job (if you have one) the majority of Lycanthropes live a double life, Pack business is kept separate from the rest of their lives.

As a result the local pack can't really turn to the Police if something goes wrong, so they turn to Anita (since she is Shagging Richard as well as Jean Claude). Richard is the Second in command in the local Wolfpack at this point, I recall a conversation about him gaining power in the pack to avoid having to do things against his will within this novel. Can't recall in what particular novel he assumes leadership of the Pack though.

The fun sub-plot in this novel is Edward hunting down a couple of Lycanthropes that were in a porn film that ended up turning into a snuff film when they tore the girl apart in the middle of it. The family of the victim hired him because of his specialty (assassin specialising in monsters).

Another interesting aside is the Were-Swan, who came about via a strange method, not the normal method of surviving an attack, or the slightly stranger cause of a bad batch of Lycanthropy vaccine causing Lycanthropy (as was the case with Richard), but as the result of a curse.

The best bit about this one is learning more about the Lycanthropy side of things in the version of the world that Anita lives in.


Updated 01/06/2005: Fixed the statement about Richard, remembered he was definately second in command at this point.