Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Books in Order: How to read Laurell K. Hamilton’s series?

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Created by American author Laurell K. Hamilton, Anita Blake is a vampire hunter and necromancer who lives in the city of St. Louis. Not our St. Louis, but one in an alternate universe where magic, vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural elements are quite real.

Working as a professional zombie animator, legal vampire executioner, and supernatural consultant for the police, Anita solves crimes, helps keep the peace, and tries not to get into too much trouble with her complicated love life.

Several novels have been adapted in comic book forms, written by Laurell K. Hamilton and Stacie M. Ritchie respectively, with illustrations by Brett Booth.

How to read the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Series in Order?

Every book in the Anita Blake series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

  1. Strange Candy (short story) – contains the original Anita Blake short story “Those Who Seek Forgiveness”, the very first story featuring the character.
  2. Guilty Pleasures – Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating 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…
  3. The Laughing Corpse – 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…
  1. Circus of the Damned – Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own-but his enemies have other plans. To make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They’re two humans caught in the crossfire–or so Anita thinks.
  2. The Lunatic Cafe – Preternatural expert Anita Blake meets an interesting array of monsters that includes jealous vampires and killer zombies, but her work with a group of besieged werewolves is threatened when she falls in love with its leader.
  3. Bloody Bones – When Branson, Missouri, is hit with a death wave, it doesn’t take an expert to realize that all is not well. Luckily for the locals, Anita Blake is an expert in the kinds of preternatural goings-on that have everyone spooked. And she’s got an in with the creature that can make sense of the slayings.
  1. The Killing Dance – Though she’s dating a vampire and a werewolf, Anita is keeping them at arm’s length. Just to complicate Anita’s already messy life, someone has put a price on her head. Love cannot save her this time, so she turns to Edward, hitman extraordinaire for help. But finding the person behind it won’t be easy, because she’s made a lot of enemies-human and otherwise.
  2. Burnt Offerings – Feared by vampires as “The Executioner,” Anita Blake finds herself not only sharing a bed with Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of the City, but also defending St. Louis’s vampire-owned businesses from an arsonist, policing a local werewolf pack and their alpha, her former lover Richard, and playing politics with the vampire ruling council.
  3. Blue Moon – Unable to forget her fiancé, Richard Zeeman, whom she had left when she could not reconcile herself to his alpha werewolf nature, vampire hunter Anita Blake seeks to prove his innocence when he is falsely accused of rape in Tennessee.
  4. Bite (short story)
  1. Obsidian Butterfly – Edward is a hit man, specializing in monsters, vampires, shapeshifters, anything and everything. There are people like Anita who do it legal, but Edward doesn’t sweat the legalities, or, hell, the ethics. He’s an equal-opportunity killer.
  2. Narcissus in Chains – Anita Blake finds herself caught in a deadly triangle between the two men, Jean-Claude and Richard, in her life, men whose immortal powers of werewolf and vampire can give her the strength she needs to overcome a deadly enemy or destroy her very soul.
  3. Cerulean Sins – Once a sworn enemy of all monsters, Anita is now the human consort of both Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire, and Micah, the leopard shapeshifter. Not quite as human as she once was, she is consumed by both their hungers-desires that must be sated time and time again. And when a centuries-old vampire targets Jean-Claude and his clan, Anita finds herself tested as never before-needing all the dark forces her passion can muster to save the ones she loves the most…
  1. Incubus Dreams – A vampire serial killer who preys on strippers is on the loose. Called in to consult on the case, Anita fears her judgment may be clouded by a conflict of interest. For she is, after all, the consort of Jean-Claude, the ever-intoxicating Master Vampire of the City. Surrounded by suspicion, overwhelmed by her attempts to control the primal lusts that continue to wrack her as a result of her passionate contacts with vampires, werewolves, and the shapeshifter Micah, Anita does something unprecedented: She calls for help.
  2. Cravings (short story) – In the heat of the night, anything goes. Boundaries are crossed and secret yearnings take shape. Creatures stalk the shadows, surrendering to their wildest needs-and satisfying hungers that take their victims beyond fear to the dark edge of desire…
  3. Micah – Vampire hunter Anita Blake is called on to raise the dead–while trying to suppress her ever-growing feelings for a certain wereleopard.
  4. Danse Macabre – In the thralls of supernatural passion, Anita Blake faces a most human dilemma. She may be pregnant. But she knows perfectly well that being a Federal Marshal known for raising the dead is no way to bring up a baby.
  1. The Harlequin – Malcolm, head of the vampire Church of Eternal Life, is no particular friend to Anita Blake. So when he shows up in her office, to ask for her help against creatures so feared that no vampire will willingly speak their name, Anita is surprised. But she believes him. Malcolm may not be a Master of the City, but he’s an old and powerful vampire, a leader of men, and he does not easily ask for help.
  2. Blood Noir – A favor for a friend puts Anita Blake in the center of a full-blown scandal that threatens master vampire Jean-Claude’s reign-and makes her a pawn in an ancient vampire queen’s new rise to power.
  3. Skin Trade – 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.
  1. Flirt – When Anita Blake meets with prospective client Tony Bennington, who is desperate to have her reanimate his recently deceased wife, she is full of sympathy for his loss. Tony Bennington seems unwilling to be convinced, is that the thing she can do as a necromancer isn’t the miracle he thinks he needs.
  2. Bullet – The Mother of All Darkness–the first vampire–wants to enter into a new human body…and the one she has in mind belongs to Anita Blake.
  3. Hit List – A serial killer is hunting the Pacific Northwest, murdering victims in a gruesome and spectacular way. The local police suspect “monsters” are involved, and have called in Anita Blake and Edward, U.S. Marshals who really know their monsters, to catch the killer.
  4. Beauty (short story) – With a vampire like Jean Claude around, it’s far too easy for Anita Blake to doubt her own appearance-and the hold it has on those who love her. But one hot tub and two incredibly sexy men-Jean Claude and Asher-will make her feel like the most lusted-after woman alive…or undead. Not bad for a mere human…
  1. Kiss the Dead – 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…
  2. Affliction – 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.
  3. Dancing (short story) – 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 Anita Blake’s arm won’t be easy, even with almost-four-year-old Matthew Vespucci to break the ice…
  4. Shutdown (short story) – Unavailable.
  5. Jason – 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?
  1. Dead Ice – Becoming the fiancée of master vampire Jean-Claude is wreaking havoc with Anita Blake’s reputation as a hardass-to some extent. Luckily, in professional circles, she’s still the go-to expert for zombie issues. And right now, the FBI is having one hell of a zombie issue.
  2. Wounded (short story) – Anita attends the wedding of her close friend but finds that even on the happiest of days there are wounds that need healing. She and the wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel are asked to talk to the bride’s thirteen-year-old brother, Tomas, who is struggling to recover from a recent gunshot wound.
  3. Crimson Death – Anita has never seen Damian, her vampire servant, in such a state. The rising sun doesn’t usher in the peaceful death that he desperately needs. Instead, he’s being bombarded with violent nightmares and blood sweats. And now, with Damian at his most vulnerable, Anita needs him the most. The vampire who created him, who subjected him to centuries of torture, might be losing control, allowing rogue vampires to run wild and break one of their kind’s few strict taboos.
  4. Serpentine – A remote Florida island is the perfect wedding destination for the upcoming nuptials of Anita’s fellow U.S. Marshal and best friend Edward. For Anita, the vacation is a welcome break, as it’s the first trip she gets to take with just wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel. But it’s not all fun and games and bachelor parties…
  5. Zombie Dearest (short story) – Two years ago, Anita raised the perfect zombie of Thomas James Warrington, who had a brief sexual relationship with Justine Henderson. Now, Justine’s parents are accusing Anita of getting their daughter pregnant and causing her life-threatening illness. Collected in the Fantastic Hope anthology.
  1. Sucker Punch – When a fellow U.S. Marshal asks Anita Blake to fly to a tiny community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on an emergency consult, she knows time is running short. When she arrives, there is plenty of proof that a young wereleopard killed his uncle in the most gruesome and bloody way possible. As the mounting evidence points to him, a warrant of execution is already under way.
  2. Rafael – Rafael, king of the wererats, must fight to the death to defend his crown. He wants Anita Blake, one of his closest allies, with him as he faces an opponent unlike any he’s faced before. He will ask Anita to risk everything to be at his side… But some of the wererats fear that Rafael depends too much on Anita and her ties to the vampires.
  3. Smolder – The wedding of the century between vampire hunter Anita Blake and the vampire king of America Jean-Claude is almost here, but an ancient evil arrives in St. Louis and even Jean-Claude’s unmatched power isn’t enough to save them. Only with the return of a lost love can they hope to combat the monster and save their loved ones and every vampire in the country from being consumed by darkness.

slay anita blake, vampire hunter books in order

  1. Slay (2023) – Considering how things in her life tend to go, Anita never expected her to walk down the aisle with Jean-Claude to go smoothly. They’ve already been confronted with naysayers and a power-hungry ancient evil, but now Anita has to do the one thing that scares her: introduce her very religious, very human relatives to her fiancé-the newly crowned vampire king of America. As Anita tries to keep the peace between the family she left behind and the family she’s chosen, dark forces jump at the chance to take advantage of the chaos. With her happy-ever-after at risk and everyone’s immortal souls hanging in the balance, Anita grapples with a hard truth: Blood makes you related, but loyalty makes you family.

If you like our article about the Anita Blake series in order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in Merry Gentry, another series written by Laurell K. Hamilton, and the Mercy Thompson Series written by Patricia Briggs.

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7 Comments

  1. Should these books be numbered in sequential order, first to last? Or as they are, individually numbered groups of 4 or 5?

    1. Just go in order from Strange Candy forward. I think the PowerPoint grouping knocked out the numerical order.

  2. I used to be a fan of the Anita Blake series but now it’s beginning to turn my stomach. There’s very little action and way too much drama. What happened? Is Ms. Hamilton running out of ideas? I’m not prejudice against others but changing the flavor of a great series to accommodate others such as GLBT is really discouraging me from continuing to read the series. What happened to the blood and guts? Where’s the action? The series is just a soap opera now and I’m looking for a new series to replace Anita’s. Unless Anita has more adventures or go to the original flavor I’ll be finding a new series. I’m tired of Anita on her back with whoever all the time. WHERE’S THE ACTION?

    1. Yep. The best books were the ones where she was chasing bad guys and not getting banged six ways to Sunday. I read LKH herself is LGBT and part of a threesome I believe. It’s fine and doesn’t bother me but the books turned into orgies and not mysteries anymore… unless the mystery is Who’s gonna get left out of the orgy and have hurt feelings….

    2. Totally agree with everyone the story line was all blood and guts and adventure now
      all it is sex, sex, and more sex. I mean some is ok but come on who goes from a virgin to a….well i wont say but you get the picture

    3. Try Ann Rice…The Vampire Chronicles….if you’ve ever seen “Interveiw With A Vampire” then you know what I’m talking about.She is also a good author

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