The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton (1997, Paperback, Reissue)

Prepare to hop on a speeding ride that takes you from confrontations with monsters, to a woman trying to figure out her own humanity. Anita Blake is a licensed vampire executioner. In her world, which is really just like our world, except for the many monsters, vampires are "legal", which means they have rights. A vampire must be legally executed (for pesky things like killing people). The interesting question is often, what separates us from the monsters? Our conscience? Our morality? I recommend reading the books from the beginning if you like true character development. Ms. Hamilton has created a character you can worry about, shake your head over and totally be intrigued by. Yes, the books can stand alone, thanks to the author's concise summaries of past events, but, I'm reading them in order, and my one worry is - what do I really want to read when I'm done? How soon will the next book come out? I highly recommend this book and series.

Although I've owned this book since it first came out, it only came out in paperback, and I wanted to own it in hardcover as I loan it out to lots of people and it's getting kind of beat-up.

I enjoy this book because I love the world of Anita Blake; it's such a unique world with cool supernatural creatures yet at the same time a world full of problems and issues that I can relate to.

"The Killing Dance" is my favorite book in the series, because it's a major turning point in both the content of the books and the emotional development of the characters.

Up until this point, the series is mostly a detective-style series. Anita, the main character, is both a Vampire Executioner and attached to the part of the police force that deals with supernatural crimes. The stories, although about her life and the people in it, are mostly about her cases and how she solves them.

They make for wonderful reading, yet at the same time are not all Ms. Hamilton wanted to write.

She wanted to write romance, and love scenes, and have the books be more about Anita's personal life and the lives of all the supernatural creatures she associates with, mostly vampires and shapeshifters of various flavors. And in this book, she succeeded brilliantly. She proved that she could mix all of the genres without losing anything from any of them. And she made the series of books I already loved into my favorite series, because now it had all the emotional depth I look for in characters and stories, and at the same time was still the detective type series I love.

I'm beginning to collect the entire series in hardcover, and had to get my favorite book first. I'm very glad I did.

A great book and must have for the Anita Blake series. If you like vampire novels then you will love all of these exciting vampire romance novals. There are 14 books now I think and she is still putting them out.

Of the three groups of vampire lit, LK Hamilton, MJ Davidson, and C Harris, this is the more intense and sometimes over the top, but always engaging, especially at this early stage of the series. Again, lots of romantic tension, breadth of paranormal community grows, layered character plots, and Anita finally makes a choice...

I purchased this book because I love the author, she hasn't dissapointed me yet. Though things can be a little repeatative, she writes a good book. I reccomend this novel to anyone who enjoys vampires, werewolves, and anything supernatural.