Circus of the Damned (1995) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Anita Blake: Animator, Necromancer, Vampire Executioner, Jean-Claude's Human Servant (unwillingly). Works with the Police Department. The Main Character of the series. The heroine of the story line.
• Jean-Claude: Master of The City of St. Louis, Master Vampire, Anita's Master, Owns Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse and Circus of the Damned. Is in love with Anita. Wants Anita to become his human servant.
• Richard Zeeman: High School Teacher
• Mr. Oliver: Also known as "the Earthmover," and was a member of the Vampire Council and, to his knowledge, the oldest living vampire. Oliver was approximately 4 feet tall, with a sloping brow, absent chin, and expensively cut blow-dried hair. Because it was suggested that Oliver was member of the Homo erectus species, a pre-human vampire, Anita estimated his age at approximately one million years. A master who is a threat to Jean-Claude.
• Manuel Rodriguez: Manny is an older animator and vampire executioner. Manny and Bert founded Animators, Inc. in a small room above a garage in 1986. He was Anita's mentor. After almost dying during a hunt he agrees to his wife's wishes and retires from vampire executions.
• Edward: 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.
• Yasmeen: Master vampire. Jean-Claude's ally. Cruel. Loves to taunt Anita.
• Alejandro: Aztec master vampire more than one thousand years old. Alejandro leads a pack of four other vampires.
• Rudolph Storr: Dolph is a police officer who was assigned to head up St. Louis' Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT) after the passage of Addison v. Clark, investigating supernatural related crimes.
• Bert Vaughn: 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.
• Marguerite: Yasmeen's human servant.
• Zerbrowski: Stereotypical rumpled, smart-alec, but highly competent detective and a loyal friend to Anita. He also makes wisecracks about Anita's personal life and is a cheerful lech.
• Veronica Simms: Ronnie is Anita's best friend and her usual workout partner and confidante. A private investigator on retainer with Animators, Inc.
• 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.
• John Burke: John is a powerful animator, vaudun priest, and vampire executioner. He was originally active in New Orleans, Louisiana, but moved to Saint Louis after his brother Peter Burke (who could also raise zombies) was killed. After moving to Saint Louis he and Anita dated briefly, and he accepted a job at Animators, Inc.
• Rashida: Werewolf involved in helping Jean-Claude.
• Willie McCoy: A small-time hood turned vampire. The first vampire friend of Anita's, he is one of only two or three vampires Anita has known before and after being turned.
• 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).
• Lawrence Kirkland: Larry is Anita's protege. He is an animator in training at Animators, Inc. and his ultimate goal is to become a vampire executioner. 20 years old and still in college.
• Stephen Dietrich: Werewolf, One of the strippers at Jean-Claude's club Guilty Pleasures
• Jeremy Ruebens: Part of Humans First.
• Karl Inger: Part of Humans First.
• Catherine Maison-Gillette: One of Anita's friends. She is a criminal attorney
• Mrs. Pringle: One of Anita's neighbors. The one that Anita likes best.
• Custard: Mrs. Pringle's dog who wants Anita's attention.
• Mary: Animators Incorporated's daytime secretary.
• Shahar: Snake charmer at Circus of the Damned.
• Edjo: The very large snake at Circus of the Damned. Once considered a god.
• Dr. Greenburg: Anita's Herpetology Teacher.
• Calvin Barnabas Rupert: Member of Humans First.
• Denise Smythe Rupert: Calvin Rupert's Wife.
• Dr. Mulligan: Tries to create a "crue" for being a vampire.
• Jimmy Dugan: A retired police officer that works at the city morgue where the specialize in holding newly risen vampires. Dolph's old partner.
• Mrs. Doughal: A client of Animators Inc. Needs to raise her husband for a will reading.
• Andrew Doughal: Mrs. Doughal's husband who dies and didn't leave a will.
• Mealanie: A Lamia. Her master is Oliver.
• Reba Baker: Add a description of this character.
• Alan Thormund: A hypnotist that Anita uses in her work.
• Bert Colby: A Vampire Hunter that went through Larry's hometown. Made Larry want to be a Hunter.
• Ronald: One of Melanie's flirty man servants.
• Raju: Melanie's Mate.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Most women complain that there are no single, straight men left. I'd just like to meet one who's human.”

  Anita Blake

• “Jesus, are all vampires over two hundred perverts?" "I am over two hundred." "I rest my case.”

  Anita, Jean-Claude

• “Brownie point for me.”

  Anita Blake

• “Please, I always use fresh sarcasm, never canned.”

  Anita Blake

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “Never taking a chance is the worst failure of all,

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• “Can the sarcasm,” he said. “Please, I always use fresh sarcasm, never canned.”

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• “I feel like one, / Who treads alone / Some banquet hall deserted, / Whose lights are fled, / Whose garlands dead, / And all but he departed,” I said. Irving glanced back to me. “Thomas Moore, Oft in the Stilly Night.”

  Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers

• But we were all young once. It passes, like innocence and a sense of fair play.

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• But then, women have more chemicals in their tear ducts. It makes us tear up easier than men. Honest.

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• I’d never seen the sense in perfectly healthy people not opening their own doors. Especially car doors where the man had to walk all the way around the car, and the woman just waited like a . . . a lump.

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• For a corpse to rise as a vampire, you have to have just one vampire feeding over a space of several days. Three bites ending with death, and you get a vampire.

  Highlighted by 17 Kindle customers

• Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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• I think if all short people could vote, the word “cute” would be stricken from the English language. I know it would get my vote.

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• Never believe that a vampire will only take a little. That it won’t hurt. That’s like believing your date will pull out in time. Just trust him. Yeah, right.

  Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• St. Louis, Missouri
• 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.

Organizations edit see section history

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Humans First: A splinter group of Humans Against Vampires (HAV). Some members of the more placid HAV became dissatisfied with the results of the groups. They banded together forming Humans First. Their agenda is to make vampires illegal so that they may be hunted without a court order of execution; they use more unorthodox methods than their sister group, HAV, including but not limited to riots and unsanctioned executions. They believe the end justifies the means and will stop at nothing to see all vampires destroyed.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Ulfric: The Alpha of a werewolf clan.
• Lupa: The female leader of a werewolf clan, dominant to every other werewolf in the clan except the Alpha.
• 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 see section history

Preceded by The Laughing Corpse, and followed by The Lunatic Cafe.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Laurell K. Hamilton (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Craig White (artist) (Cover Artist)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3558.A443357 C57 2004
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Language, Violence

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy › Urban
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy › Series
• Books › Romance › Vampires
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy › Dark
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Authors, A-Z › ( H ) › Hamilton, Laurell K.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Laurell K. Hamilton: Author's Website

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history