The Laughing Corpse
core novel 1994 Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
Record
| First published | 1994 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.13 (89,287 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780441000913 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
The Laughing Corpse is the second novel in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, continuing directly from the events of the earlier book Guilty Pleasures. Anita returns to her regular work as a professional animator, raising zombies for paying clients and consulting with the police on supernatural crimes, even as the marks Jean-Claude placed on her in the previous novel continue to change her in ways she does not fully understand. Her necromantic abilities grow noticeably stronger over the course of the book, complicating both her professional cases and her uneasy, unwanted connection to Jean-Claude and the vampire politics of St. Louis. As a disturbing new case draws her deeper into the world of illegal zombie-raising and rival practitioners of dark magic, Anita must rely on her expanding, still-unpredictable powers to protect herself and those around her.
Where it sits
- Universe: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
- Series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter core; position 2 of 30 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Notes
- From the series record (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter): The long-running main sequence, mixing full novels and a few shorter novellas, following vampire hunter and necromancer Anita Blake; still active as of the latest update.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: position 2 of 30: previous Guilty Pleasures (1993) · next Circus of the Damned (1995)
Sources
← Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.