The Laughing Corpse

Anita Blake is back, and this time she's asked to sort out a murderous zombie while convincing Jean-Claude, the vampire Master of the City, that dinner and a movie really aren't in her schedule, especially not when the undead are asking. And as if that wasn't enough, one of her clients wants her to raise a someone from the dead... someone long enough in the grave to require a human sacrifice.

Hamilton's trademark combination of wit, gore, and gender-neutral macho are here in spades. Anita is forced to play sleuth in a world that grows more interesting with each novel; with vampires counted as citizens in full possession of legal rights, black magic not only functional but publically recognized (complete with automatic death sentences for "murder by magic"), the resolution of conflicts between humans and monsters becomes a matter for careful footwork as well as firepower.

The villians Anita faces are spine-tingly chilling, her allies are sometimes scarier than her enemies, and her best friend is a cold-blooded assassin. The eroticism that mars later books in the series is absent here, leaving the plot and characters free to shine. This is pure, clean, undiluted fun.