Anita Blake is known as “The Executioner” in St. Louis. She’ll occasionally hunt down vampires who have broken the law for the local police force, and she raises the dead for her day job. However, she finds herself in a position where she must help the master vampire of the city locate someone or something that has been killing vampires. You see, in Hamilton’s world, vampires are an accepted part of society and are even gaining legal rights for their existence and fair treatment under the law. And while Anita doesn’t particularly like vampires, and therefore doesn’t want to search for the killer, she doesn’t have much choice when the master vampire of the city, one who is a few hundred years old and very powerful, forces her to assist them. How? Powerful vampires are able to get into your head and read your thoughts or plant visions and feelings that can make life either very painful, or very pleasurable. In order to force Anita to help them, the master vampire makes it very clear that her life will be very difficult if she doesn’t. So Anita decides she will help… but she’s also going to take down the master vampire if it kills her.

This is book one in the Anita Blake, Vampire hunter series of novels. I thought I’d give the series a try because my husband is a fan (he bought the series) and because when I worked in a library, I noticed that Hamilton’s books were very popular (particularly the Anita Blake ones). But I have to say that this first novel didn’t impress me very much. The storyline is interesting and Hamilton is pretty good at the macabre details, but the writing can be a little too repetitive (I’m not sure how many times she has to let us know about the sound air conditioners make, or the way Anita’s sweat “gels”), and her characterization lacks those small details that can really bring a character to life. I’m hoping that, like I found with Twilight, the series will get better as it goes on, and that Hamilton’s writing improves with each novel. However, I’m only a few chapters into book two in the series (The Laughing Corpse), and already have encountered enough references to the A/C and Anita’s sweat to discourage me from continuing the series.