Laurell K. Hamilton – Dead Ice

Book 24 in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, published June 9, 2015
Genre: urban fantasy
Cover: for the first time, I don’t get the cover or the title.



My name is Anita Blake and I have the highest kill count of any vampire executioner in the country. I'm a U.S. Marshal who can raise zombies with the best of them. But ever since master vampire Jean-Claude and I went public with our engagement, all I am to anyone and everyone is Jean-Claude's fiancé.
It's wreaking havoc with my reputation as a hard ass - to some extent. Luckily, in professional circles, I'm still the go-to expert for zombie issues. And right now, the FBI is having one hell of a zombie issue.
Someone is producing zombie porn. I've seen my share of freaky undead fetishes, so this shouldn't bother me. But the women being victimised aren't just mindless, rotting corpses. Their souls are trapped behind their eyes, signalling voodoo of the blackest kind.
It's the sort of case that can leave a mark on a person. And my own soul may not survive unscathed . . .


Just while I was in the middle of re-reading this series, I won this latest book on Paranormal Haven Blog, so I could not have been happier. I would have to wait a whole year to read it otherwise.

Anita is now very officially engaged to Jean-Claude, the new King of Vampires in America. He pulled all the stops in a very public and romantic proposal (and Anita hated every moment of it). But Anita won’t just settle down with Jean-Claude, she still loves her Micah and Nathaniel as much, and they will all engage in another kind of commitment ceremony. Of course other men in her life are very jealous they are not to be included, and she just doesn’t want to deal with them anymore.
Both Asher and Narcissus try to force their hands, but Anita won’t budge, and with next to him, neither will Jean-Claude. Their lives are working at the moment as it is, and they won’t be pushed to add more demands on their personal time.
Nicky is playing a bigger part in this book, and I really like him. Anita is still uncomfortable with Cynric (Sin) and I do agree with her on that, and I don’t like his pushiness. Or Jade.

But that is Anita’s personal life. It keeps evolving, and I do love to read about all of them and how she tries to deal with it and everyone’s feelings.

The main story here is zombie porn. Someone is making zombies who are aware of the things that are happening to them, and that someone is very strong and very evil, as he knows how to trap their souls inside. It makes Anita remember her early days, when the Senora tried to recruit her skills for something similar. Now it is her old friend and mentor Manny who’s past is coming back to haunt him, big time.

But when Anita really lets loose her necromancer powers, no one is stronger than her … but will she be in time to save the hostages?


As all my loyal readers know, I love this series. I even love the sex scenes and keep reading them instead of skipping those pages as I usually do. And there are a lot of hot love scenes in this one. Anita gets hurt a few times, or has to try to heal others, so sex is necessary. They also need to have more ties to the tigers, and perhaps add a female or two in the mix. Ofcourse politics are involved, both vampire and were-animal politics. Anita is actually getting better at it.

The only complaint I have, is that there is always so much talking and explaining needed to new police of FBI officers, about who and what Anita is. They call for her help and expertise and then don’t want to believe her. So why bother her at all? To my surprise, Larry Kirkland is back and they might even become friends of sorts again.

10 stars.

© 2015 Reviews by Aurian