x dismiss this message
Did you know you can edit this page?
-
Sign Into Shelfari
-
Choose something to edit
-
Save your contributions
see page history
Description edit
"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... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Anita Blake lives in St. Louis, Missouri in a world where magic, vampires, werewolves and the like are and have always been "out of the closet" and in some cases even legal. Anita is an "animator" with the ability to raise or inter zombies. She uses this ability in employ at "Animators... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Anita Blake: Animator, vampire hunter AKA "The Executioner" with 14 kills under her belt
- Jean-Claude: Master Vampire and Manager of the vampire strip club Guilty Pleasures.
- Catherine Maison: Human, Anita's friend. Anita goes to her bachelorette party at the vampire strip club, Guilty Pleasures. She is a criminal attorney
- Nikolaos: Master vampire of the city, over 1000 years old. Died at a young age and is very childlike in appearance and mentality. "Hires" Anita to solve who is a fault for a string of Vampire murders.
- Monica Vespucci: Human. Friends with Catherine. Is a lawyer at Catherine's law firm. Believes that "Vampires are people too!". She is also one of the bridesmaids at Catherine's wedding.
- Edward: Human, nicknamed Death. A hitman, he now specializes in assassinating supernatural targets, because humans were too easy. He particularly hunts vampires and lycanthropes, and taught Anita most of her combat skills. Anita considers herself to be possibly Edward's only true friend.
- Zachary: Animator. Works for the vampires.
- Willie McCoy: New vampire who was a crook in life but ultimately sympathetic in death. The only vampire that Anita knew in life and "death."
- Philip: Human. Stripper at Guilty Pleasures. Vampire junkie. Helps get information for Anita. He is a flirt.
- Theresa: Vampire belonging to Nikolaos. Around 100-150 years old.
- Valentine: Vampire, just over 100 years old. Bloody history with Anita. He has killed many humans and prefers young boys. In his last battle with Anita he was badly scarred with holy water and Anita got her shoulder munched on. Has vicious scars from it.
- Winter: Human who works for Vampires.
- Rudolph Storr: AKA Dolph. Head of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team. Anita's boss when she works with the poilce.
- Aubrey: Vampire, over 500 years old, Although not a master, he is a very powerful lieutenant of Nikolaos.
- Veronica Simms: Human. Private Detective. Friends with Anita. Nickname "Ronnie".
- Bert Vaughn: Human. Founder and managing partner of Animators, Inc. Bert is an unscrupulous boss who is inclined to sign the animators up for almost any job if the price is right. He and Anita often clash over Bert's choices of potential clients and jobs for Anita.
- Jamison Clarke: Animator who works at Animators Inc. He typically clashes with Anita over Anita's side job as vampire executioner. Unlike Anita, Jamison believes that vampires are essentially people, and disapproves of executing them without trial.
- Dead Dave: Dave is an ex-cop who was kicked off the force after he became a vampire and who now owns a bar called Dead Dave's. Though still bitter at the police for kicking him off the force, Dave sells and gives information to Anita to aid her investigations.
- Luther: Human bartender at Dead Dave's. He works the day shift and frequently acts as Anita's informant on the bar's owner, Dave's, behalf.
- Manuel Rodriguez: An older animator/vampire executioner. Manny and Bert founded Animators, Inc. in a small room above a garage in 1986. He was Anita's mentor and trainer for animating and vampire hunting. After almost dying during a hunt he agrees to his wife's wishes and retires from vampire executions.
- Malcolm: Powerful master vampire, and the head of the Church of Eternal Life in St. Louis, where being a permanent member means you will live forever (stakes, fire, and crosses aside).
- Burchard: The human servant to Nikolaos. He is very skilled with weapons.
- Irving Griswold: A short, balding werewolf with a day job as an investigative reporter for a Saint Louis newspaper. Irving remains closeted at his day job in order to avoid discrimination, and frequently exchanges information with Anita.
- Rafael: Leader of the St. Louis wererats. King of Dark Crown Clan, He has a brand in the form of a four pointed crown on his left arm, that is visible in both forms.
- Louis Fane: AKA Louie, Wererat, Rafael's lieutenant, professor of biology at Washington University
- Lillian: A doctor and a wererat. She frequently patches up shapeshifters in their unofficial infirmary.
- Buzz: Vampire, A bouncer and bodyguard at Guilty Pleasures
- Clive Perry: Detective Clive Perry is one of the newest recruits to RPIT, Anita is curious to know what it was that he did to get transferred to the Spook Squad because he always seems so soft-spoken and pleasant. She could never imagine Perry doing anything rude enough to piss someone off, but you didn't get assigned to the squad without a reason.
- Robert: Robert is over one hundred years old. He works as a striper an Guilty Pleasures, and sometimes runs the club when Jean-Claude is absent on other duties. Robert is essentially a coward, and repeatedly backs down in confrontations
- Mrs. Pringle: Add a description of this character.
- Beatrice
- Darlene
- Rebecca Miles
- Mary
- Zerbrowski
- Crystal
- Beverly Chin
- Rudolf Storr
- Lucas
- Craig
- Madge
- Thomas Jensen
- Maurice
- Veronica Sims
- Manny
- Rochelle
- Bruce
- Iris Jensen
- Phillip
- Harvey
- Estelle Hewitt
Quotes edit
-
“I am The Executioner, and I don't date vampires. I kill them.”
Anita Blake -
“I had never heard a vampire giggle before. It wasn't a pleasant sound”
Anita Blake -
“I was hoping that the vampires would come for me soon and save me. You've got to admit that's funny.”
Anita Blake -
“Bert would take money for a hit on the Pope if he thought he could get away with it.”
Anita Blake -
“When in doubt, take a breath and keep moving. A philosophy I have lived by for years.”
Anita Blake -
“I wish the machine gun wasn't in the car”
Edward -
“Graves are for the living, not the dead.”
Anita Blake -
“An atheist waving a cross at a vampire was a truly pitiful sight.”
Anita Blake -
“He was at least six-three, and there wasn’t enough fat on him to grease a cake pan.”
Anita Blake -
“I talk to myself every once in awhile. Give myself very good advice. Sometimes, I even take it.”
Anita Blake -
“Who knows, maybe Death slept with a teddy bear?”
Anita Blake -
“Nice, a holy item check girl.”
Anita Blake -
“Somehow throwing a client out using a holy item seemed less than professional”
Anita Blake -
“The secretary said you were at a bachelorette party." He wiggled his eyebrows. "Hoochie coochie.”
Dolph Storr -
“If I'd known you liked to see naked men, we could have worked something out." "The stuff you got, Zerbrowski, I don't want to see.”
Zebrowski & Anita -
“I hate to waste a really good threat”
Anita Blake -
“The only thing missing was a rack and a black-hooded torturer, one with big, beefy arms, and a tattoo that said 'I love Mom'”
Anita Blake -
“I was blushing. Dammit!”
Anita Blake -
“A lot of people don't get my jokes. If I was less secure, I'd think my jokes weren't funny. Naw”
Anita Blake -
“Curiosity killed the vampire. One could always hope”
Anita Blake -
“Geez, look into my eyes. You'd think the city's master vampire could be more original”
Anita Blake -
“Some people smoke. I collect stuffed penguins. If you won't tell, I won't”
Anita Blake -
“...because no woman can find anything in her purse in under twelve minutes. It is a rule”
Anita Blake
-
Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt
Highlighted by 106 Kindle customers -
You can’t save everybody. In fact, there are days when I think you can’t save anyone. Each person has to save himself first, then you can move in and help.
Highlighted by 82 Kindle customers -
‘Never criticize, unless you can do a better job.’ ”
Highlighted by 53 Kindle customers -
If you keep the gun in your purse, you get killed, because no woman can find anything in her purse in under twelve minutes. It is a rule.
Highlighted by 41 Kindle customers -
Pity is an emotion that can get you killed. The only thing more dangerous is blind hate, and maybe love.
Highlighted by 40 Kindle customers -
Graves are for the living, not the dead. It gives us something to concentrate on instead of the fact that our loved one is rotting under the ground. The dead don’t care about pretty flowers and carved marble statues.
Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers -
Murphy’s law is the only true dependable in my life most of the time.
Highlighted by 29 Kindle customers -
“Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”
Highlighted by 27 Kindle customers -
When in doubt, take a deep breath and keep moving.
Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers -
So many traumatic events and your time sense screws up. Too much happening in too short a space of time.
Highlighted by 20 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Guilty Pleasures: A strip club where male vampires and shape shifters dance for the masses.
- The District: Also called Blood Square, a section of St. Louis where supernatural businesses and citizens cluster
- Circus of the Damned: A converted warehouse. From the front it looks like a carnival with posters promoting the freak show, and dancing clowns twirling on top of the glowing sign. The warehouse contains a permanent carnival, a circus ring and a freak show that held mostly mythological creatures.
- The Church of Eternal Life: A vampire church located in St. Louis. It is considered one of the fastest growing congregations in North America.
Organizations edit
- Animators, Inc.: One of the most successful animator companies in the US. Although having begun as a small business in a spare room above a garage, it has grown, moving to bigger and better offices and hiring additional animators and secretarial staff. Though primarily aimed at raising the dead, the nature of the business has attracted other clients who wished to utilize the animator's expert supernatural knowledge, especially after vampires won civil rights. The firm usually receives contracts to have the dead raised as zombies, usually as witnesses in legal cases, setting will disputes, and sometimes as a last chance to have a word with a loved one who has passed away; Anita's place of employment
- Regional Preternatural Investigation Team: RPIT, usually pronounced "Rip-It", is an extension of the St. Louis Police Department charged with keeping the peace between the human and supernatural communities by investigating all crimes with a supernatural aspect, and apprehending and/or exterminating the guilty parties. It has only recently been formed, largely as a half-hearted effort to placate the liberals and the press after the groundbreaking Addison vs. Clark case. Its remit is to investigate all supernatural crimes, whether it be committed against humans or against the supernatural beings themselves, including Vampires, Lycanthropes, Zombies, Ghouls, and more. Derogatorily known as the "Spook Squad", it is not considered a positive career move to join it, and it is comprised mostly of police officers who have aggravated their superiors in some way or another.
- Humans Against Vampires: HAV is a pro-human organization that lobbies for the removal of human right to vampires. Their agenda is to make vampires illegal so that they may be hunted without a court order of execution; they use legal channels such as petitioning and protesting through the media and the political machine.
First Sentence edit
Willie McCoy had been a jerk before he died.
Table of Contents edit
Chapters 1- 48
Glossary edit
- Shapeshifting: In its broadest sense, it is when a being has the ability to alter its physical appearance. The transformation may be purposeful or not, depending on whether it has been the subject of a curse or spell. In some folklore, once the shapeshifter has become transformed, it becomes progressively more difficult for it to return to its original form.
- Therianthrope: Refers to the metamorphosis of humans into other animals. Therianthropes change forms via “shifting.” There are two common types of shifts: the Mental Shift and the Physical shift. An M-shift is when the Therian changes their mind to think like their therian animal. A P-shift is when the Therian changes their body to that of their therian animal; they can do partial shifts (such as keeping a human body but having an animals head).
- Wererat: A fictional lycanthropic creature akin to a werewolf, but shapeshifting into the form of a rat instead of a wolf. This type of therianthrope is rare in historical legends, but has become common in modern role playing games and fantasy fiction inspired by them. They are commonly portrayed as sewer-dwelling scavengers and opportunistic thieves.
- Werewolf: Is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely, by being bitten by another werewolf, or after being placed under a curse. This transformation is often associated with the appearance of the full moon, as popularly noted by the medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury, and perhaps in earlier times among the ancient Greeks through the writings of Petronius.
- Ma Petite: French: When used as an adjective it translates to honey-sweet. It is also a cute double entendre that refers to Anita's height.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 1 of 26 in Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter. (standard series)
Followed by The Laughing Corpse.
This book is in Vampire (community list). (community list)
This is book 82 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Laurell K. Hamilton (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Craig White (artist) (Cover Artist)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Ace
Country: USA
Publication Date: October 1, 1993
ISBN: 0450595609
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Ace
Country: USA
Publication Date: October 1, 1993
ISBN: 0450595609
Page Count: 272
Awards edit
- Geffen Award (Finalist, 2005: Best Translated Fantasy Book)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3558.A443357 G85 2002
- Dewey: 813.54
Subjects edit
Popular Tags
See all 50 tags
Links to Supplemental Material edit
- Laurell K. Hamilton: Author's Website
More Books Like This edit
Books with Additional Background Information edit
Books That Cite This Book edit
We’re hiding the themes, errata, movie connections, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.
