Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Borrowed from my local public library.

*** "Hardcore supernatural"

From the back cover: "'I don't date vampires. I kill them.' My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me the Executioner. What I call them isn't repeatable. Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I've seen their victims. I carry the scars... But now a serial killer is murdering vampires - and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer..."

There's an interesting story behind how I chose to borrow and read this book. While blog-hopping, I happened upon gnooks via this post at ANZ LitLovers. gnooks is a handy tool to find an author you might like based upon authors that you already enjoy. I tried it out and Laurell K. Hamilton was the author that it suggested. A quick browse of my library's online catalogue helped my choose Guilty Pleasures, the first in the Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter series.

So, how did gnooks do? Did I enjoy the book? Well, yes...

The world that Hamilton has created is a far cry from the world of Sookie in Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampires (True Blood) books. Anita Blake inhabits a world in which the dead rarely rest in peace. Black magic abounds, the dead can be raised, zombies and ghouls terrorise cemeteries, and undead creatures can gain power over mortals to do their bidding. Only religious icons, used with true faith, can stand against evil, and rituals involving the spilling of blood are commonplace. To tell you the truth, I found it all a bit disturbing.

The general plot of the book follows Anita's ordeal as she attempts to solve the vampire murders before she loses her life. I've got to say, however, that I found it awfully confusing. A lot of characters were introduced, and I sometimes found it difficult to keep everyone straight in my mind, and particularly the relationships between them. I know that this is the first book of a series, so I assume that the characters would continue on in further books, and the reader would find it easier as they went along to remember who was who.

Will I continue reading this series? The jury's still out.