Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series is a literary sensation, thanks to its strong female hero, well-fleshed (both literally and literarily) characters and unabashed attitude toward sex. The world Hamilton has created is powerfully compelling and stunningly complex—and it gets deeper, richer and more perilous, with every book. Straddling the series' dominant themes of sex and power, Ardeur gives Anita fans a deeper look into the dynamics, both personal political, that have kept readers fascinated throughout the run of the series. Why is the ardeur the very best thing that could have happened to Anita, personally (aside from all the sex it requires her to have with hot men)? How is Anita's alternate United States a logical legal extension of our own? And as the series continues, what other bargains might Anita have to make with herself and others in order to keep the people she loves safe from harm? The collection includes essay introductions by Hamilton, giving context and extra insight into each essay's subject.

DurandComposed in 1917, this manuscript was recently discovered, and the music, in the style of Debussy's preludes for piano, is now in print for the first time. Debussy, suffering the hardships of World War I, composed it in gratitude to his coal merchant. Includes an introductory article.

'It was the middle of November, I was supposed to be out jogging, but instead I was sitting at my breakfast table talking about men, sex, werewolves and vampires. I should be concentrating on my dangerous situation - the ardeur between me and Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City, and Richard, my werewolf lover, is reaching new levels, evolving into something altogether new, acting with a will of its own.' But instead Anita Blake, preternatural expert and feared executioner, is less interested in vampire politics than in the ancient, ordinary dread that women down the ages have experienced: am I pregnant? And, if so, is the father a vampire, a werewolf or someone else entirely. And being a Federal Marshall, known for raising the dead and hunting vampires, is no way to bring up a baby.

'People don't like dealing with people who raise the dead. Don't ask me why, but we make them nervous.' There's something about Leo Harlan that I don't like. He's asked me to reanimate his long-dead ancestor, and it seems like a perfectly ordinary case for someone like me: Anita Blake, preternatural expert, vampire hunter and raiser of the dead. So I agree - sometimes you deal with the devil not because you want to, but because if you don't, someone else will. But what he hasn't told me is that the corpse may hold the secret to an ancient crime that not everyone wants to be remembered.

An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, novel 'The bride was a witch who solved preternatural crimes. The groom raised the dead and slew vampires for a living. It sounded like a Halloween joke, but it wasn't.' When I'm not up my elbows in sacrificial gore, I've got serious preternatural issues to deal with. Psychotic shape-shifters, duplicitous vampires and sexually deviant were-leopards. And that's just my friends. I'm Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter and Federal Marshall. My life is more complicated than ever, caught up between obligations to the living and to the undead. Now there is a vampire serial killer preying on strippers. And I've been called in to help the police.

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, returns to face an ancient, Medusa-like curse in her twenty-sixth adventure. Fans of Charlaine Harris and Anne Rice will delight in this series by Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. 'I've never read a writer with a more fertile imagination' Diana Gabaldon My name is Anita Blake, U.S. marshal and vampire hunter. But this time, there's a monster that even I don't know how to fight . . . A remote Florida island is the perfect destination for my best friend Edward's wedding, and a much-needed getaway for me and wereleopards Micah and Nathaniel. But it's not all fun, games and bachelor parties. Micah has unearthed a horrific new form of lycanthropy down here - a Medusa-like curse that turns its victims into a mass of snakes. The last thing I need is more drama, but when women start disappearing in this tropical paradise, my own friends and lovers become the prime suspects. I can't fight this one alone and am ready to accept help from even the deadliest of places - help I know I will regret. If I survive at all. Readers love the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, series: 'Anita Blake novels are my addiction' 'Fantastic! Unexpected! Intriguing! Full of love, relationships, action and adventure' 'Vampires, zombies and guns, oh my!' 'I couldn't love Anita and her adventures with the supernatural community any more'

A collection of books 11-15 in Laurell K. Hamilton's New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. • Cerulean Sins • Incubus Dreams • Micah • Danse Macabre • The Harlequin

I am 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 US Marshal. I have my lovers, my friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all this ordinary happiness a vampire from my past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, and it's hard to kill a god. The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with me and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to emigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken ... And if the Mother of All Darkness can't succeed in taking over my body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again.

A collection of books 16-19 in Laurell K. Hamilton's New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. • Blood Noir • Skin Trade • Flirt • Bullet

'The ardeur made me a sort of living vampire who fed off sex, but with the downsides came some interesting upsides.' Jason is a werewolf. He's one of my best friends and sometimes a lover. And right now he needs me, Anita Blake - not to be a vampire hunter, or a Federal Marshall, or a necromancer, but because his father is dying. I can help make him look like an everyday guy, help him say goodbye to the abusive father he's never loved. How hard can it be? Really, by now, you'd think I'd know better. Because this is the weekend that Marmee Noir, ancient mother of all vampires, picks to make her move. I've got something she wants - and now she's going to take it.