In this fifth installment of the
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, by
Laurell K. Hamilton,
Anita is hired to raise some very old
zombies in
The Ozarks. A very rich
law firm was in the process of building a
resort for the rich and famous when they unearthed a old
grave yard. They need to have the
zombies raised to settle a
land dispute. If the
zombies are
Bouviers, the
law firm will loose the land and be out a lot of money. Anita, is an
animator (actually she is a
necromancer, but few people know that) and probably the only one in the
U.S. that might be able to get the job done. She takes Larry Kirkland, her
animator intern, along to combine powers with so they have enough to raise the entire
cemetery of dead. No easy task when the bodies have been torn up and strewn around by construction equipment, and to make matters harder they are all over 200 years old, some are much older than that too.
Anita also works with the regional preternatural police task force. While she is on the job she gets a call to go look at a murder not far from her. The cops think it is a vampire, but Anita isn't too sure. It is soon figured out that they could have a serial killer on their hands. Possibly a vampire serial killer. And his MO is young children and early teens. Well, Anita needs to get friendly with the local Master of the City vampire so Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of the City of St. Louis and one of Anita's two boyfriends, comes to introduce Anita to the locals to help her solve this crime.
Meanwhile the law firm is getting anxious and Anita also finds out that the Bouviers who might legally own the land the resort is being built on are Faries. They run a local resturant called Bloody Bones and occasionally use their powers of glamor to run a lover's night. It's not really legal, but the local cops look the other way. But Anita thinks they are hiding something else too.
When Jean-Claude shows up things really start to get interesting especially with the local vampires. Will Anita be able to stop the serial killer and figure out what is going on with the Boviers? Will she even survive?