Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

Anita Blake is small, dark and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St Louis. Her job – reanimating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear – her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy ...

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter for Animators, Inc., is offered a cool mil to raise a 283-year-old corpse. But she knows that the older the zombie, the bigger the death needed to raise it. Only a human sacrifice is 'big' enough to raise this old soul – and Anita’s no murderer. Now, a creature from beyond the grave is tearing a swath of murder through St. Louis. And Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried – and some people better off dead …

Most women complain that there are no single straight men left. I'd just like to meet one that's human. I'm Anita Blake, expert on creatures of the night. I've dined with shapeshifters, danced with werewolves, and been wooed – but not won – by Jean-Claude, the Vampire Master of the City. And now a darkly dangerous vampire named Alejandro has hit town. He wants me for his human servant. A war of the undead has begun. Over me ...

You don't volunteer for slugfests with vampires. It shortens your life expectancy. And you don't fall in love with a werewolf. It interferes with your work. Especially when you're a preternatural expert, like me. My name is Anita Blake. My business brings me up close and personal with all shapes and sizes of monsters. And not all of them want to kill me.

The first hit man came after me at home, which should be against the rules. Then there was a second, and a third. Word on the street is that Anita Blake, preternatural expert and vampire killer extraordinaire, is worth half a million dollars. Dead, not alive. So what's a girl to do but turn to the men in her life for help? Which in my case means an alpha werewolf and a master vampire. With professional killers on your trail, it's not a bad idea to have as much protection as possible, human or otherwise.

'You can't trust anyone who sleeps with the monsters.' That's what I've always said. That's what I've always believed. But now I'm the one sharing a bed with the Master Vampire of the City. I'm Anita Blake, the woman the vampires call the Executioner. From part of the solution, I've become part of the problem. So it hits close to home when an arsonist begins to target vampire-owned businesses all over town – an arsonist who seems to want to destroy more than just property. It's the monsters who are in danger now. And it's up to the Executioner to save them from the inferno.

Apparently the former love of my life had got himself thrown into jail for assaulting a woman. Since I make my living as a preternatural expert, I tend to believe almost anything's possible. But though he may be one of the monsters, Richard would never harm a woman. So it's Anita Blake to the rescue. I've got just a few days to spring Richard and find out who framed him – and why. There's a full moon coming, and if my werewolf love is still behind bars when it rises, he'll be facing a lot worse than an assault charge ...

Edward is a hit man. He specialises in monsters. Vampires, shape-shifters, anything and everything. There are people like me, Anita Blake, who do it legally, but Edward doesn't sweat the legalities or, hell, the ethics. He is an equal opportunity killer. I may be one of the few friends that Edward has, but it's like being friends with a tame leopard. It may curl on the foot of your bed and let you pet its head, but it can still eat your throat out ...

I'm Anita Blake and I kill monsters. The last thing I want to think about though when I get home after a night out is work. But someone has abducted a wereleopard from the Narcissus in Chains club. It's a dark world out there with shapeshifter crime and were-creature struggles. I may not have seen Jean-Claude, the Vampire Master of the City, for six months, but I need his help now, whatever the consequences. Someone is targeting the lycanthropes and we have to save them.

Once a sworn enemy of all monsters, Anita is now the human consort of both Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire, and Micah, the leopard shapeshifter. Not quite as human as she once was, she is consumed by both their hungers – desires that must be sated time and time again. And when a centuries-old vampire targets Jean-Claude and his clan, Anita finds herself tested as never before – needing all the dark forces her passion can muster to save the ones she loves the most.

A vampire serial killer who preys on strippers is on the loose. Called in to consult on the case, Anita fears her judgment may be clouded by a conflict of interest. For she is, after all, the consort of Jean-Claude, the ever-intoxicating Master Vampire of the City. Surrounded by suspicion, overwhelmed by her attempts to control the primal lusts that continue to wrack her, Anita does something unprecedented – she calls for help. Anita's life becomes more complicated than ever, as she is caught between her obligations to the living and the undead.

There are lots of reasons to raise the dead – some private, some public. In this case, the feds have a witness who died before he could speak on the record. They want him raised so his testimony can be taken. So here I am, on a plane to Philadelphia, flying off to do my job. But I'm not alone. Micah is with me. Micah, head of the St Louis wereleopard pard. King to my Queen. The only one of my lovers who can stir my blood with just a glance from his chartreuse cat's eyes. I was happy to have him at my side. Until he mentioned that this will be our first time alone together. No Master Vampire.

But instead Anita Blake, preternatural expert and feared executioner, is less interested in vampire politics than in the ancient, ordinary dread that women down the ages have experienced: am I pregnant? And, if so, is the father a vampire, a werewolf or someone else entirely. And being a Federal Marshall, known for raising the dead and hunting vampires, is no way to bring up a baby.

It seems the power that connects me, Anita Blake, with Jean-Claude Vampire Master of the City and Richard, leader of the werewolves, is attracting very unwelcome attention – from creatures so feared no vampire will willingly speak their name. They are known as the Harlequin, and they have the authority to pass judgement upon me. It is forbidden to speak of the Harlequin unless you've been contacted. And to be contacted is to face a sentence of death.

Jason is a werewolf. He's one of my best friends and sometimes a lover. And right now he needs me, Anita Blake – not to be a vampire hunter, or a Federal Marshall, or a necromancer, but because his father is dying. Because this is the weekend that Marmee Noir, ancient mother of all vampires, picks to make her move.

When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they're dealing with. Only it's worse than she thought. Police officers and one executioner have been slain – paranormal-style. Anita heads to Vegas, where she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward hiding behind his mild-mannered persona. It's a good thing Edward always has her back, because, when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses 'tiger' too strongly to ignore it.

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.

I am back in St Louis and trying to live a normal life – as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire-executioner and a US Marshal. I have my lovers, my friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all this ordinary happiness a vampire from my past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, and it's hard to kill a god.