Bloody Bones: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel

Written by Laurell K Hamilton

Narrated by Kimberly Alexis

For the first time in trade paperback: the fifth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Laurell K. Hamilton.

When Branson, Missouri, is hit with a death wave 'four unsolved murders' it doesn't take an expert to realize that all is not well. But luckily for the locals, Anita Blake is an expert in the kinds of preternatural goings-on that have everyone spooked. And she's got an 'in' with the creature that can make sense of the slayings-the sexy master vampire known as Jean-Claude.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Jan 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781101154496

Laurell K Hamilton

Laurell K. Hamilton is the bestselling author of the acclaimed Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Novels. She lives near St Louis with her husband, her daughter, two dogs and an ever-fluctuating number of fish. She invites you to visit her website at www.laurellkhamilton.org.

Reviews for Bloody Bones

[juva_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Anita finds herself called out of town for an elite Animator gig. Some eccentric millionaire needs her to raise an entire cemetery of zombies in order to prove his ownership of a piece of property. He's prepared to pay handsomely for it because literally no one else can do it. Anita's not ever sure if she can do it, but Bert insists that she try. Naturally, while she's out there she's called in on a serial murder case. This one appears to be a vampire. This one has a taste for young boys and manages to kidnap one right out from under Anita. With absolutely no choices left, Anita calls upon Jean Claude for an introduction to the local master.

This master is an old acquaintance of Jean Claude's but she turns out to be more than either of them bargained for. They barely manage to escape with their lives. To further complicate matters, the land that the cemetery is on is the ancient burial mound of a legendary Fae monster. The local master is intending to resurrect the beast to feed upon it. When Anita kills it, she's happy to have the necromancer instead. Anita will have to push her already shaky moral code to the breaking point if she hopes to survive this one.

The cracks in Ms. Hamilton's writing style are really starting to show in this book. She has the most tedious way of constructing her dialogue that seems intended to take up as much time as possible. Everything is repeated at least twice and usually four or five times. No one talks like humans. Everyone is constantly going, "What?!" "I don't understand what you mean?!" and "What's that supposed to mean?" in order to draw out prosaic and tedious explanations of patently obvious things. Every pivotal decision is endlessly drawn out until every possible dramatic moment is squashed to utter boredom.

[jennifer6hettenbach · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have read this book and the ones that come before and after it many times. Each time I start the series again I managed to come up a little shorter then I did the perivious time. I found that each time I would read it I liked it less and less, or at least I like the Anita less and less. I liked the theme and the world and most of the supporting cast just fine, but Anita not as much. I started to notice that Anita doesn't have any flaws. Everything she does she is the best at, everyone wants to be with her, and she never seems to make any mistakes. She is always destined to be queen of whatever comes along. It gets old fast.

[phyllis2779 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Old book. I really liked all of the earlier books of this series, of which this is one. But I really don't feel like rereading them so I'm going to let this one go.

[lvstrongpuff · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is amazing!! Each books keeps getting better and better. I like how Anita grows as you get further and further in the series. She's getting more powerful.

[literaryfeline · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Naming her books after place names seems to be a pattern for Ms. Hamilton. Bloody Bones takes the reader outside of St. Louis as Anita Blake, the Vampire Hunter, takes on a job of raising a cemetery of zombies whose graves have been disturbed. Meanwhile, she finds herself a part of the investigation for a series of child murders that may involve a vampire. The goat sacrifice was too graphic for my tastes, but I did enjoy this novel. With each new installment in the series, Ms. Hamilton gives the reader a deeper view into the hearts and minds of her characters.

[melydia_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When she is called upon to raise an entire cemetery to settle a land dispute, Anita Blake must call on her aspiring paramour vampire, Jean-Claude, for help. I liked this one, though the love triangle continues to feel forced. Mostly I liked learning more about the fantasy elements, like the mechanics involved in raising the dead, the various species of supernatural critters, etc. I'm not impatient to read the next one, but I'll probably continue reading the series. It's entertaining enough.

[turtlesleap · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fantasy Ultralight. If you like Charlaine Harris, you will inevitably compare the work. Ms. Hamilton writes from a very similar mythos. What is lacking is the touch of humor that makes Harris' work enjoyable.

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Anita Blake is a self-assured monster hunter in a short skirt who carries an aresenal around with her at all times. She also happens to date both a vampire and a werewolf in her spare time. In this book, there seems to be two separate stories that meld into one. First she is asked to animate the dead to settle a land dispute in Branson, Missouri. While doing so, she is called into a police investigation of the slaughter deaths of three teenage boys. Then another death of a teenage girl in her home-drained of blood. Along the way with the help of another animator co-worker and her vampire boyfriend, Anita works to solve the mystery of Bloody Bones. There is a strong dose of sarcasm and irony that runs through the books, and while the plots are serious, violent, and bloody, there are also funny moments; the characters have senses of humor, even some of the vampires!

[bethanymoore · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Here is where I first started to get irritated with Anita... though she gains knowledge and power, she doesn't evolve much, and though she knows her issues are in her way, she would rather make excuses for them than change. However, it's a mark of an engaging story when you yell at the printed page as if it can hear you...

[librarycin · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Vampire hunter and raiser of zombies, Anita Blake, has been called on to raise hundreds of bodies from a cemetery where the bones have all been mixed together. She's not sure if she'll be able to do it, but she'll try. In the meantime, a few teenagers have been murdered and it appears to have been something supernatural. Anita wants to try to help with the investigation.

I really enjoy these audios. They include some sound effects at certain points and it really works for me. I also really liked this particular story, but I just don't get the appeal of Jean-Claude. I really don't!

[rosetyper9 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my least favorite of the Anita series. Sort of like Book 2 in the Harry Potter series. I just wasn't feeling it. I loved the incorporation of the fey because I love the Merry Gentry series but those little tidbits were pretty much the only thing I enjoyed. I need to re-read Merry's books and catch up.

[dearheart_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Anita is hired to go out of town to raise really old zombies to settle a land dispute. A company had paid one family for the land on top of a mountain in order to build a resort, but another family claims it’s theirs. Larry accompanies here Anita to Branson, MO and while there is asked by Dolph to look at a scene involving a preternatural attack. Of course the cop in charge doesn’t want Anita involved; especially after saying the boys were killed by a vampire who works so fast the kids didn’t even have time to be scared.

This story involves the fae, a nursery boggle and vampires. In order to speak to the Master of the City, Jean-Claude must join her. She no longer carries any of his marks, but most vampires still believe she’s his human servant. In this story we start to learn vampire etiquette and politics and that Anita can do what was always believed to be impossible. And something else Anita must do to save her and Larry would earn her a death sentence if the police had seen it.

There are lots of different interweaving aspects to this story and plenty of action and tension as Anita faces life-threatening challenges multiple times. It’s easy to be inside of Anita’s head and feel much of what she’s going through. And this book has what is arguably one of the most poignant emotional scenes in the series as Anita realizes she has feelings for Jean-Claude and no longer views him as a monster.

A great story from a lot of different avenues; world and character building, police investigation, mystery revelations, action and emotions.

[nicolefromcarmel · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I read this series a long time ago. I was hooked on book one. Captivated by book two, still interested in book 4 and then it turned in to "romance" novel status. Yes, I continued to read the rest of the series, I'll admit it. But the urban part was gone and it really was just fantasy. Hamilton took a great character with a ton of potential and turned her into a sex goddess with so many lovers, who could keep track. What happened to the short, crazy haired, black nike wearing Anita. In it's place a nymphomaniac arose and I just can't find the interest to check out the most recent novel.

[jeb5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“Bloody Bones” continues the Anita Blake series. In this novel, Blake is given the job of resurrecting a cemetery of 200 year old corpses to figure out what family owns the land on which a developer would like to build. While out on assignment, Blake is called in by the local police to investigate a murder scene. Much to the local authority’s dismay, Blake believes that there is a serial killing vampire on the loose. Blake must utilize all of her vampire hunting techniques and sources to figure out this preternatural who-done-it.

Blake has grown and developed as a character and while she remains as stubborn as ever she is gradually coming to terms with her “human” side. The drama of dating both Jean-Claude and Richard has also taken its course and added an element of emotional stress that hadn’t existed in the previous novels (minus “The Lunatic Café” that is).

Hamilton’s writing remains an easy read with her vivid descriptions and the enlightening explanations. With her shorter chapters the pace for her books remains steady and before you know it, the end is here and you are reaching for the next in the series.

[ritastradling · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was the best yet.

[jbemrose_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Book #5 Anita and larry went to Brandson to raises a whloe graveyard to see if it was a family plot. Also Anits as for Jean Claude help to with master of Brandson so the can get the boy Jeff back from a rouge vampire. But Anita,Larry,Jean Claude, and Jason barely escape from Seraphina, the master of Brandson and Bloody Bones the faery.

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My and Anita Blake came to a parting of the ways after Flirt, Book 18. Although really I lost the love after Narcissus in Chains, Book 10. That I lasted as long as I did is a tribute to how much I did enjoy the earlier books and hoped they might get back on track. It's been several years since I read the Anita Blake books. About five years, I think, since I remember Harlequin had already come out and I gobbled them up one after another. Yet I still remember the vividly that scene in the graveyard. Truly, made of awesomeness, for this was when Anita really was a Vampire Hunter--and an Animator--an employee of a firm that will raise the dead for you for a last talk--for a price. It was a time in which Anita was still torn between the smexy Jean Claude, Vampire Master of the City, and Richard the (still) decent and good man--and werewolf. And oh, yeah, she still cared about people she didn't have a sexual or romantic hankering for--witness the prominence of her co-worker Larry Kirkland in this book who often provides the comic relief. In other words, this was when Anita and her universe were still fun.

[t1bnotown · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

These books are popular enough that I find them around, but I'm definitely not seeking them out. There's WAY too much zombie gore and way too little vampire romance. There are suggestions that maybe she'll get somewhere with Jean Claude eventually, but so far nothing. I'm really not going for this, "I'm so tough I shoot people and raise the dead and my only interesting characteristic is my collection of penguins." Lots of killing=boring. Even the fairies that show up in this aren't interesting.

[joybee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great book, fast paced, fun read with romance,blood and guts.

Anita is out of town on animator business, she needs to raise all of the bodies of a disturbed graveyard to settle a land dispute. The problem is that the bodies are really old and all need to be raised in one night. Meanwhile there is a possible serial killer, of supernatural powers (possibly a vampire), rampaging the small town she is visiting. Anita is called to assist he local police, but they don't seem to appreciate her help.

[janersm · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Oy. I've tried to be positive about the Anita Blake books, but this book has been the worst in the series, by far. I almost gave up on it a few times, but I stuck with it.

There weren't as many issues with this one & the blatant copy-paste issue that existed in The Lunatic Cafe or other books from the series, but I would've almost traded anything to have those instead of the awkward prose that did exist. I wondered at times if maybe I got a version of the book that just had a choppy writing technique, but I have a feeling that there was no difference in the edition I had as compared to the original hardback version.

The plot was not as easy to follow, and the bad guys were all way too transparent. The only character that really had any decent development was Jean-Claude. (His past was nice to learn about.) Anita's past, though, became almost too annoying to constantly go over. I understand why her past had to be covered, but I almost felt like reading about her "pain" was some kind of cruel chore that an abusive parent might force a child to do.

I don't understand why Anita, as the narrator, cannot be more of sympathetic character. Sometimes, it seems like reading her thoughts is like having insight to the school bully. She's such a jaded and rude character that her snide remarks don't come off as some kind of snarky wit, but instead come off as the ideas of a character that thinks that she is truly better than anyone else in existence. That arrogance is extremely off-putting. She's also extremely fragmented in her personality when it comes to monsters. Anything or anyone who has any sort of superhuman ability seems to be labeled as a monster & all monsters must be killed, but if she has any kind of warm fuzzy feelings for you, then you're safe. This seems to be a major conflict in her mind, and (since she's the narrator) it gets brought up over and over. It makes me, and probably others, just wish that some big bad monster would off her already.

And why must we keep being reminded that she hold such a moral standard with regards to sex? It's disgusting to read about her saint-like prudence, and then turn a page and see that she will kill anyone and not have the slightest bit of grief over their death. She's practically a sociopath when it comes to violence, so it makes the quasi-virginal attitude all the more intolerable to read about.

I will continue to read the novels, but I hope the rest get better.

[ceysa_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This takes Anita to another state, and then gets her into trouble with the FBI, her employer and some very nasty fairy characters as well as vampires.
Now these vampire encounters introduce the reader to protocol when dealing with other vampires, various kinds of vampires and the scariest vampire of all for Anita. One who promises her the most impossible thing of all..... well, you will just have to read it to find out what. (Evil grin.)

[thesolitarybookworm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So we have reached the fifth book of the series. Like the first four series, Bloody Bones is packed with hard core fighting, bitching and all that macho stuff that Anita seems to handle quite well. I have enjoyed reading how Anita manages to maintain a balance in her life and how she handles every obstacle effortlessly.


The book is good, but compared to the first four, this was quite a long read. I mean, I didn't quite enjoy this as much as the first four books. But it doesn't mean that it is not worth reading. I enjoy the love triangle but it becomes a drag throughout the story. Throughout the series, Anita is pictured to be a strong independent woman but sometimes she comes off bitchy. I don't know why. Still a good book, though not as good as the first 4.

[averitasm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Love all of the series .

[readingrat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While not perfect, I think this has been the best of the series so far. I've always loved the plot action in these books but found the over-the-top caricaturization of the main character incredibly annoying. In this installment Anita actually makes mistakes, she experiences doubts, desire, and even some defeat which goes a long way towards making her a character rather than just a caricature. Giving her a side-kick, and thereby a mirror in which to see herself differently, really helped add dimensions to her. Yes we still have to hear about her black Nike's and her inner-pants holster (time after time), but she comes across as much more natural in this book. That, along with a wide and varied host of new monsters, made for an excellent read.

[susanbevans · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great book in the series. I can not get enough!

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I just don't get tired of the Anita Blake books. The dialogue here may be a bit more trite than in some of the others, but the story is there and the characters as interesting as ever.

[teharhynn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So tell me, who is the beautiful vampire Jean Claude? This book really takes you deeper than any of the others into his character. You find out a bit about his making and how his first years as a vampire were. Maybe that’s why he’s the way he is now? All in all, it was a good read, but I would have liked to see a little more of Richards character. Oh and let me say “Anita, Why are you waiting for Marriage!?”

[flamika_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my absolute favorite Anita Blake book, which may be because I accidentally read it before any other book, but it has everything I like about the series: paranormal police investigations, Larry Kirkland, Jean-Claude (pre-NiC), vampires, and other preternatural nasties. It's a great, well-rounded novel.

[rstanfield_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I very much enjoyed the first few books of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. Unfortunately the series seems to be going downhill fast. The books are starting to drag, the plot is getting thinner, and the series seems like it should be renamed soft porn with vampires. I can't take much more of this series.

[la_librarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Bloody Bones was just really good. Anita seems so much more human. It's funny because she's always going on and on about the other "monsters" and how Jean Claude the vampire isn't human but Anita had too much of an idealistic quality about her before this book. You could see changing starting in Lunatic Cafe, the title before this on, but the changes are really happening.



It's hard for me to imagine this as a stand alone title because so much of the previous books brings meaning to this one.



All in all...continuing a great series for vamp fans.