Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Book Reviews
Book Review: Blood Noir
By Sandy Amazeen
May 25, 2008, 17:18 GMT

Book sixteen of the Anita Blake series focuses on Jason, a werewolf stripper who works for Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of St. Louis as he faces difficult family and childhood issues. Jason’s father, Frank is dying and his mother has asked him to come home to say goodbye. Returning home threatens to drudge up a number of old hostilities between father and son as Jason was always found to be wanting and Frank is convinced his son is gay. Anita agrees to accompany Jason home in an effort to prove he is straight and discovers Frank is as much a bully from his hospital bed as he was when fit and hale. An ongoing case of mistaken identity keeps Anita and Jason on their toes while she becomes subject to more manipulation by the mother of darkness, Marmee Noir. The ancient vampire continues to stir in her slumber, this time with serious consequences to Anita and Jean-Claude as a call to unmated male tigers goes out across the country. Anita looses track of three days, wakes up in a roomful of strange men and worse, the ties that bind her and Jean-Claude together have been blocked or cut. Time is running out as a vampire affair turns deadly and the consequences will likely have long term effects.

Vampire politics, Anita’s growing powers, weretigers and Marmee Noir come together in a story that revolves more around family and power then the issues of sex although there is no shortage of that as well. Although Anita makes use of her position as a federal marshal, her role as a vampire hunter takes a back seat while Marmee Noir continues to be developed for what must be the inevitable showdown. Obviously, with sixteen titles in the series, readers new to Hamilton’s work will want to start with earlier work before attempting to make sense of the ongoing storyline.