Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter #7)

Amazon.com
Burnt Offerings is the seventh in Laurell K. Hamilton's genre-straddling Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. Anita carries a gun and an attitude: "Questions are great, but only if you know the answers. If you ask questions and the answers surprise you, you look silly. Hard to be threatening when you look ill-informed."

As Burnt Offerings unfolds, Anita agrees to help track down a possible psychic firestarter. She's also policing the local werewolf pack, though she's split up with their alpha, Richard. Then Jean-Claude, the vampire Master of the City and her lover, needs her help to confront a visiting delegation of the vampires' ruling council. They wonder how he got the power to destroy a council member and believe him dangerous to the hierarchy.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When an arsonist's fires begin licking at St. Louis's undead, it's up to Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter to save the very monsters she's sworn to destroy.

Filled with nonstop action, witty dialog, and steamy sex...will appeal to fans of Anne Rice and Tanya Huff. (Library Journal)

FROM THE CRITICS

VOYA - Anne Liebst

Anita Blake is the woman that the vampires call the "Executioner." She is part policewoman, part protector, and part monster. Can she be everything to everybody in a city where vampires, werewolves, and wereleopards roam freely about? Once again, Anita Blake's adventures take her into a world with strange characters, ancient spells, vampires, and the supernatural. Anita is her same old feisty self, ever determined to not let anyone-dead or alive-get the best of her. Sixth in the popular Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, this title is missing the wonderful blend of romance, horror, and mystery that is present in the other novels. Burnt Offerings' mixture of genres does not congeal well. Horror abounds in this fast-paced novel; as the city burns around her, Anita must try to stop the torture and rape the Vampire Council inflicts upon her and her friends. Too much happens, making the novel hard to follow, and too many characters seeking revenge on what seems to be everyone makes the novel preternatural. A little less violence and revenge and more romance involving Anita, Jean-Claude, and ex-boyfriend Richard would have made this a much better read. VOYA Codes: 2Q 2P S (Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Library Journal