When Anita Blake meets with prospective client Tony Bennington, who is desperate to have her reanimate his recently deceased wife, she is full of sympathy for his loss. Anita knows something about love, and she knows everything there is to know about loss. But what she also knows, though Tony Bennington seems unwilling to be convinced, is that the thing she can do as a necromancer isn't the miracle he thinks he needs. The creature that Anita could coerce to step out of the late Mrs. Bennington's grave would not be the lovely Mrs. Bennington. Not really. And not for long.This book exemplifies why I'm sure there are some bookstore employees that just hate me. I went into B&N yesterday and I made a very nice guy (named Guy I think) work for his paycheck! But it's not my fault that none of the new releases were on the shelves. I just requested books that I knew were in the store - and unfortunately this guy had to suffer for the inadequacies of whoever closed the store last night. Oh well - at least he has the satisfaction of knowing I bought everything he found for me!
To get back to the book, let me just warn you that this is a novella. It's not a full length novel and only about ~160 some pages - but it's a good 160 pages. I've never been that person who cries and laments every time Hamilton releases an Anita Blake book with some sex. Even when the story focused primarily on her interpersonal relationships, I still feel like the series as a whole was going somewhere. But even after saying that, I am happy to report that this book focuses on the other side of Anita's powers, her necromancy. It's another look into what Anita could be, what she chooses not to be, and the type of people who are brought to her attention by the incredible power she wields. There's a lot of violence, blood, and death - which shouldn't be surprising to any readers of the series. Yet at the same time the new characters are fleshed out enough that you don't feel like they're being gipped by the smaller page count.
Aspiring writers and other fans should be enthused about the essay at the end of the book, where Hamilton talks a lot about how she gets her ideas and how she writes. And after that you can get a kick out of the comics done by The Devil's Panties creator, Jennie Breeden.
Overall Feeling - Definitely Thumbs up. A really quick read, the only thing I could have asked for is that it was released in paperback to save my wallet.
Series - I've said this before and I'll say it again. There are just way too many books in the Anita Blake series to list them all, so please check out Laurell K Hamilton's website here.
