This is the second book in a series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter. I’m not really sure why I bought this book. The first book in the series didn’t knock my sox off. It was mostly o.k. – but it wasn’t something that sent me teetering on the edge of obsession to get the next book. I guess the author’s Merry Gentry books swayed the decision. I just read the first two books of THAT series, and although they were as much soft porn as fantasy/horror, they were pretty darn good. (Though I’m wary to go much further, the soft porn thing is something that gets expanded on in later books, if reviews at Amazon are to be believed.)

After reading the first two Merry Gentry books, this one was a disappointment. I thought about this book quite a bit this morning, thinking of this entry. Why didn’t I like it? There’s good action, there are good characters, there’s a really good main character, but somewhere I got lost. I had to make myself pick it up again. Maybe it was the zombies. Maybe I’m not a big fan of zombie books.

Then I read the author’s after-word. In it, she pats herself on the back for writing successful “mixed genre” books. There must be a lot of people out there that really like them, because each new one ends up on a best seller list. I think I like “mixed genre” books too, kind of. Several of Charlaine Harris’ books come to mind. However, I’m not sure the author did quite as good a job mixing her genres in this one. The whole was about as good as the sum of its parts.

Laughing Corpse @ Amazon