Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

Anita Blake is small, dark and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St Louis. Her job – reanimating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear – her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy ...

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter for Animators, Inc., is offered a cool mil to raise a 283-year-old corpse. But she knows that the older the zombie, the bigger the death needed to raise it. Only a human sacrifice is 'big' enough to raise this old soul – and Anita’s no murderer. Now, a creature from beyond the grave is tearing a swath of murder through St. Louis. And Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried – and some people better off dead …

Most women complain that there are no single straight men left. I'd just like to meet one that's human. I'm Anita Blake, expert on creatures of the night. I've dined with shapeshifters, danced with werewolves, and been wooed – but not won – by Jean-Claude, the Vampire Master of the City. And now a darkly dangerous vampire named Alejandro has hit town. He wants me for his human servant. A war of the undead has begun. Over me ...

You don't volunteer for slugfests with vampires. It shortens your life expectancy. And you don't fall in love with a werewolf. It interferes with your work. Especially when you're a preternatural expert, like me. My name is Anita Blake. My business brings me up close and personal with all shapes and sizes of monsters. And not all of them want to kill me.

The first hit man came after me at home, which should be against the rules. Then there was a second, and a third. Word on the street is that Anita Blake, preternatural expert and vampire killer extraordinaire, is worth half a million dollars. Dead, not alive. So what's a girl to do but turn to the men in her life for help? Which in my case means an alpha werewolf and a master vampire. With professional killers on your trail, it's not a bad idea to have as much protection as possible, human or otherwise.

'You can't trust anyone who sleeps with the monsters.' That's what I've always said. That's what I've always believed. But now I'm the one sharing a bed with the Master Vampire of the City. I'm Anita Blake, the woman the vampires call the Executioner. From part of the solution, I've become part of the problem. So it hits close to home when an arsonist begins to target vampire-owned businesses all over town – an arsonist who seems to want to destroy more than just property. It's the monsters who are in danger now. And it's up to the Executioner to save them from the inferno.

Apparently the former love of my life had got himself thrown into jail for assaulting a woman. Since I make my living as a preternatural expert, I tend to believe almost anything's possible. But though he may be one of the monsters, Richard would never harm a woman. So it's Anita Blake to the rescue. I've got just a few days to spring Richard and find out who framed him – and why. There's a full moon coming, and if my werewolf love is still behind bars when it rises, he'll be facing a lot worse than an assault charge ...