Laurell K. Hamilton: The Harlequin

I shouldn't be mentioning their name, should I? I haven't received a mask, meaning it's forbidden to discuss them. The vampire policing band of seriously old and powerful vampires. And they've arrived to St. Louis under pretense of checking the Church of Eternal life.

Spoilers ahead. :)

That was the official line. When actually the head of the Harlequin just wanted territory for himself before Mother of all Darkness wakes (that would mean some kind of protection which I managed to foget what actually it was). Too many metaphysical explanations to keep them all in my head. Anyway, Anita and company manage to deal with them. Company this time includes Edward and Olaf. :) Olaf being the serial killer whose type of women are exactly what Anita looks like. Yeah, her life is never easy. But since Anita knows what Olaf is like, she tries to keep contact to a minimum, until the end of the book when she practically fulfills Olaf's fantasy with him (meaning he is now seeing her as an attractive partner and not prey).  Which will get more obvious in Skin Trade.

You know, I wouldn't be writing about each of the books in the series if I didn't participate in the Anita Blake challenge. I am glad I decided to read them again, those books make me feel brave and ready to face the world. It's because Anita is a character that is at the same time fragile and extremely brave and tough. I'm sure she would get angry with me if she were real and saw this. :) She, along with Harry Potter are the two characters that feel most real to me. As if they really could exist in this world. Or, and this is worse for me, as if I could get lost in their worlds forever and never want to leave. There are some books/series that make me feel like that. Like I need to learn to live my life again ince I'm done with them. Which is at the same time proof that the author in question does some excellent writing and a problem for me because I tend to want to go back and feel a bit depressed that I can't. One more book that does this is The Lord of the Rings.

One last thing about the book. It's even more vampire politics complicated with spies, rules, council politics etc. getting all mixed up in the story. I should have paid more attention when reading it because I got a bit surprised in the end with trying to figure who did what and why. :) Well, I am on a vacation after all. :D