Bloody Bones
Book Five, Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series
Laurell K. Hamilton

Vampire hunter and animator Anita Blake sinks her teeth into her work. But this day is busier than most. Two jobs pop up that make even Anita doubt her own capabilities: raising an entire graveyard of two hundred year old corpses and finding out what happened to three Missouri teenagers - slaughtered in a way she has never seen before.

This book seems to (mostly) get back on track with the paranormal mystery/suspense that the first three books were so good at. There are two intertwining plots here, the first is that a law firm has hired Anita to raise an entire cemetery full of two to three hundred year old corpses in order to determine who owns the land. The second is the killing of three teens, the turning of a young girl into a vampire, and the kidnapping of a young boy. Both of these plots have enough action and twists and turns to keep a reader interested.

The upside to this novel is that her dating the werewolf (Richard) and vampire (Jean-Claude) is downplayed in this installment. While she is still seeing them both, it plays less of a roll here than it did in the previous novel, and I consider that to be a good thing. The downside to this book is that is does, at one point, slide into bodice-ripper territory when Anita licks the bath water off of the vampire Jean-Claude. Not something I really wanted to read or even imagine for that matter. At least it was only a page or two and the romance aspect didn't take up the entire novel as it did in The Lunatic Cafe.

As long as one has read the previous novels, it is well worth it to read this one. It's up to par with the first three and is better than the fourth one. While I plan on reading this entire series no matter if it falls more into the romance category than the supernatural thriller category, I would much prefer it to downplay the romance. I really do not need to know about Anita's love life nor do I care that a werewolf and a vampire are in love with her. What I do care about is a plot like this novel presents where it keeps you guessing and hooked on the book so that you don't want to put it down.

If you've read the other novels in this series, do read this one as well.

My rating: Four out of five snails.