Review: The Lunatic Cafe- by Laurell K. Hamilton

In The Lunatic Cafe, the fourth novel in the Anita Blake series, the story starts out the way it usually does. Anita Blake, zombie animator/vampire executioner, is interviewing a client whose wife is missing, but Anita recommends him to her best friend instead since missing persons isn't really her strong suit. Anita is off to go on a nice date with Richard, the shapeshifter who was introduced in The Circus of the Damned, who she has been seeing since. Jean Claude, the master vampire of the city, is not happy with their relationship and is rather set on finding ways to end it. There are more problems when Gretchen, another vampire, tells Anita that she needs to give up her claim on Jean Claude. Did she have one? Huh. That could cause some problems.

Well, if that love square didn't pose enough problems, guess what else it's time for? Another murder mystery! It takes long enough to even find out what's going on because the local sheriffs department is causing all kinds of trouble for Anita, Dolph, and the rest of the Spook Squad. Turns out something killed a person, and it was probably some kind of shapeshifter.

Did I mention there are troubles in the shapeshifter ranks? Hmmm.... Anita gets taken to meet Richard's pack Alpha at the Lunatic Cafe and madness ensues. Long story short. The shapeshifters are having problems too and want Anita's help. Richard hadn't wanted to drag Anita into it, but that didn't go over to well. Their relationship begins to get a little bit rocky.

Oh, and Edward, aka Death, is in town, that can't be good. He, as usual, is here on a job to hunt a few supernatural people down, for a price, and wants Anita's help. She is not happy with what she finds out and neither is Richard. There is more going on with the pack than either of them realized, and Anita will have to face something she didn't think she would.

Jealousy, lust, envy, fighting, death, that's like any usual Anita Blake novel. Lots of dialogue, inner struggle, werewolf porn, Anita's trigger happy self, that all is a little more new. This novel was a little bit different than the previous ones, but I greatly enjoyed it. Things are taking a bit of a different turn, and that's fine with me. Darker, not a bad thing. There's still the essential Anita Blake wonderfulness from the first novels that got me into this series, but I don't want every one to be exactly the same or else there's no way I could make it through this series. All in all, a very good read and looking forward to the next one!