New Releases by Laurell K. Hamilton

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Meet Merry Gentry, paranormal P.I., and enter a thrilling, sensual world as dangerous as it is beautiful, full of earthly pleasures and dazzling magic, and ruled by the all-consuming passions of immortal beings once worshipped as gods . . . or demons. “I’ve never read a writer with a more fertile imagination.”—Diana Gabaldon Merry Gentry, princess of the high court of Faerie, is posing as a human in Los Angeles, working as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now the queen’s assassin has been dispatched to fetch her—whether she likes it or not. Suddenly Merry finds herself a pawn in her dreaded aunt’s plans. The job that awaits her: enjoy the constant company of the most beautiful immortal men in the world. The reward: the crown—and the opportunity to continue to live. The penalty for failure: death.

Angels walk among us, but so do other unearthly beings in this brand new series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. Meet Detective Zaniel Havelock, a man with the special ability to communicate directly with angels. A former trained Angel speaker, he devoted his life to serving both the celestial beings and his fellow humans with his gift, but a terrible betrayal compelled him to leave that life behind. Now he’s a cop who is still working on the side of angels. But where there are angels, there are also demons. There’s no question that there’s evil at work when he’s called in to examine the murder scene of a college student—but is it just the evil that one human being can do to another, or is it something more? When demonic possession is a possibility, even angelic protection can only go so far. The race is on to stop a killer before he finds his next victim, as Zaniel is forced to confront his own very personal demons, and the past he never truly left behind. The first in a new series from the author of the Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series.

"Enjoying pain with your pleasure is something you either get, or you don''t. If you get it, then you don''t really need it explained, because you know how good it feels, and if you don''t get it then no amount of talking is going to convince you it makes sense." But sometimes you have to explain the unexplainable, especially if the love of your life needs to understand, or she''ll leave you. Jason Schuyler is one of Anita Blake''s best friends and favorite werewolves, with benefits. J.J. is his lady love, an old flame from childhood who dances at one of the top ballet companies in New York. She''s accomplished, beautiful, and she''s crazy about him, too. Neither of them wants to be monogamous, so what could go wrong? J.J. is enthusiastically bisexual, with an emphasis on the female side of things. She plans to keep sleeping with women, because Jason can''t meet that need, just like she can''t meet Jason''s need for rough sex and bondage. J.J. doesn''t understand why Jason isn’t content to go elsewhere for a need she can’t fulfil, so Jason asks Anita to help him explain. Anita is having her own relationship growing pains with her only female lover ever, Jade. Jason suggests that J.J. might be able to help Anita with her girl problem, while she helps him with his kinky explanations. With some encouragement from a few other lovers in Anita''s life she reluctantly agrees, and J. J. makes plans to fly into town for an experience that none of them will ever forget.

Micah’s estranged father lies dying, rotting away inside from some strange ailment that has his doctors whispering about “zombie disease.” Anita Blake makes her living off of zombies—but these aren’t the kind she knows so well. These creatures hunt in daylight, and are as fast and strong as vampires. If they bite you, you become just like them. And round and round it goes…Where will it stop? Even Anita Blake doesn’t know.

Vampire hunter Anita Blake leaps into uncharted territory in the all-new novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. For most people, summer barbecues are nothing to be afraid of. But Anita isn’t exactly plain vanilla—and neither is her love life. So it takes a special kind of courage to attend a barbecue thrown by her friend Sergeant Zerbrowski. Walking into a backyard full of cops and their families with wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel both looking gorgeous on her arm won’t be easy, even with almost-four-year-old Matthew Vespucci to break the ice… Anita is determined to have a good time with her family, just like everyone else. But it doesn’t take long for tensions to rise among the adults and kids. And Anita will learn that gossip and innuendo can be just as dangerous as anything the undead can throw at her… Includes a preview of Affliction, the new Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel “Hamilton remains one of the most inventive and exciting writers in the paranormal field.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author “Long before Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels, [there was] sexy, strong-willed vampire hunter Anita Blake.”—USA Today “Laurell K. Hamilton is the reigning queen of the urban fantasy world.”—Midwest Book Review Laurell K. Hamilton is a full-time writer. She lives in a suburb of St. Louis with her family.

When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Anita Blake to find her. And when she does, she’s faced with something she’s never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people—kids, grandparents, soccer moms—all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving a master. And where there’s one martyr, there will be more… But even vampires have monsters that they’re afraid of. And Anita is one of them…

The adventures of U.S. Marshal and vampire hunter Anita Blake continue when word is leaked to her that hit men are headed to St. Louis and that she, Jean-Claude, and Richard are targets.

Watch a video The music came back up and the next group of little girls, slightly older, came out. There was a lot of that in the next hour and change. I liked dance, and it was no reflection on the kids, but my will to live began to seep away on about the fifth group of sequined children... Anita Blake is back in St. Louis and trying to live a normal life-as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a U. S. Marshal. There are lovers, friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all the ordinary happiness a vampire from Anita''s past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, killed in an explosion, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, their dark creator. It''s hard to kill a god. This dark goddess has reached out to her here-in St. Louis, home of everyone Anita loves most. The Mother of All Darkness has decided she has to act now or never, to control Anita, and all the vampires in America. The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with Anita and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to immigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken. Anita is about to learn a whole new meaning to sharing her body, one that has nothing to do with the bedroom. And if the Mother of All Darkness can''t succeed in taking over Anita''s body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again. Even Belle Morte, not always a friend to Anita, has sent word: "Run if you can..."

Anita Blake has been asked to raise the dead-but the results aren''t going to make everybody happy...

You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. To protect my unborn children, I have turned my back on the crown, choosing exile in the human world with my beloved Frost and Darkness. Yet I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. I thought I’d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. But now I realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever—even if they’re magical.

A vampire is on a murder spree in Sin City in this Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City’s local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it’s worse than she thought. Police officers and one executioner have been slain—paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where’s she’s joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward hiding behind his mild-mannered persona. It’s a good thing Edward always has her back, because, when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses “tiger” too strongly to ignore it. And the weretigers are powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone very powerful the wrong way just got a lot higher…

Into Anita Blake''s world-a world already overflowing with power-come creatures so feared that centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names.

First time in trade paperback: the fourth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series. Vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake is an expert at sniffing out the bad from the good. But in The Lunatic Cafe-now in trade paperback for the first time-she''s about to learn that nothing is ever as it seems, especially in matters of the not-so-human heart. Dating a werewolf with self-esteem issues is stressing Anita out. Especially when something-or someone-starts taking out the city''s shapeshifters.

Caught between rival faerie courts and deadly ambition, Meredith Gentry must navigate a web of seduction, danger, and ancient power to survive long enough to claim the throne—in this thrilling Merry Gentry novel. Meredith Gentry, princess and heir apparent to the faerie throne and a former private investigator in the mortal world, must bear a child to secure her crown, or her ruthless aunt, Queen Andais, will place her sadistic son, Cel, on the throne—and have Meredith killed. Surrounded by her devoted royal guards and lovers—her Darkness and her Killing Frost—Meredith is protected but not safe. Despite her efforts to conceive, she remains childless, while the queen’s deadly schemes intensify. Seeking refuge from court intrigue, Meredith and her guards retreat to Los Angeles, but distance offers little protection from enemies determined to destroy her. A new threat arises when King Taranis, the delusional ruler of the Seelie Court, falsely accuses her guards of a heinous crime and pushes mortal authorities to prosecute them. If convicted, they face extradition to faerie and brutal punishment. Meredith knows the charges are a lie—and suspects that Taranis’s true target is her. Having tried to kill her once already, his ambitions now seem somehow even more dangerous.

In the thralls of supernatural passion, Anita Blake faces a most human dilemma.

A collection of short fiction features "The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death," an Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter story, as well as "House of Wizards," "Stealing Souls," and "Those Who Seek Forgiveness," a never-before-published Anita Blake tale.

Unable to forget her fiance, whom she had left when she could not reconcile herself to his werewolf nature, vampire hunter Anita Blake seeks to prove his innocence when he is falsely accused of rape

The bestselling "Obsidian Butterfly" gave Anita Blake wings. Now she''s about to soar even higher. Six months of celibacy have made Anita crave the two men in her life like never before. But merging their powers together will give this mortal woman a taste of immortal hunger that she''ll never be able to forget.