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paperback cover

Publisher's Blurb:

"The first hit man came after me at home, which should be against the rules. Then there was a second, and a third. Eventually, I found out that the word on the street was that Anita Blake, preternatural expert and vampire killer extraordinaire, was worth half a million dollars. Dead, not alive. So what's a girl to do but turn to the men in her life for help? Which in my case, means an alpha werewolf and a master vampire. With professional killers on your trail, it's not a bad idea to have as much protection as possible, human or otherwise.

But I'm beginning to wonder if two monsters are better than one..."

Publication Date:

Hardcover - March 2006
Paperback - September 2002(Jove)

ISBN:

0-425-20906-7(Jove HC), 0-515-13451-1 (Jove PB)

Covers and Cover Art:

The above cover was from the 2002 paperback republication of the book. The artist is: ?????.Craig White. Additional cover designs for North America and the UK can be seen here.

Synopsis:

In The Killing Dance, Anita continues to explore her relationship with her two romantic interests, Richard and Jean-Claude, while attempting to resolve an assortment of conflicts ranging from werewolf politics to unsolved murders.murders.

For a more detailed plot summary of the book, see here

Primary Characters:Characters:

Anita Blake
Jean-Claude
Richard Zeeman
Edward

Recurring Characters:Characters:

Dolph Storr
Zerbrowski
Willie McCoy
Rafael
Lillian
Christine
Stephen Dietrich
Jason Schulyer
Catherine MaisonMaison-Gillette-Gillette
Mrs. Pringle
Monica Vespucci
Marcus
Raina
Gabriel
Louis Fane

Non-Recurring Characters:Characters:

Police detectives Greeley and Branswell.
Pack members Heidi and Neal.

New Characters:Characters:

Tammy Reynolds - RPIT'sRPIT's first witch
Damian - newly arrived vampire
Liv - newly arrived vampire
Gregory Dietrich - Stephen's twin brother; wereleopard
Jamil - pack enforcerenforcer, skoll
Sylvie - werewolf
Harley - Edward's backup

Character Deaths:

Marcus
Raina
Gabriel
Cassandra
Sabin
Dominic Dumar
Harley

Important Revelations:

  • Not feeding on humans for a vampire can cause a rapid form of 'rot'.


This novel focuses primarily on Anita's love triangle with Richard and Jean-Claude. As before, Richard, with his desperate attempts to remain "human" and his powers that originate from life, represents the side of Anita that rebels against the "darker" elements of her nature, while Jean-Claude, who has long accepted his demons and draws his powers from death, represents the part of her that accepts them. Ultimately, Anita realizes that even Richard, the "nice" and "normal" member of their triangle, is sufficiently entangled with the supernatural to place himself and the others in danger, and she runs to Jean-Claude, who is at least able to present his more monsterous aspects discreetly and to protect himself from danger. Nevertheless, Anita remains emotionally and politically entangled with Richard as well, as future novels will show.

The Killing Dance is notable as a turning point in the series for at least two reasons. First, with a detailed sex scene between Anita and Jean-Claude, this novel displays Hamilton's increasing introduction of elements of erotic literature into the Anita Blake novels. Second, this novel contains noticeably fewer elements of detective fiction relative to prior novels. Although the plot includes two mysteries (the identity of the person placing a contract on Anita's life and Robert's murderer) and one forensic crime scene analysis (Robert's(Robert's murder), Anita, for the first time, plays almost no role in actually solving either mystery. Her role with regard to the murder contract is just to stay alive until Edward, off screen, is able to identify and reveal the identity of the "money man." Similarly, once Anita is told that her primary suspect has an "airtight alibi" from "a woman," she essentially ceases investigation of Robert's murder, until the murderer captures her and reveals his entire plan.

Explanation of the Title:

The "Killing Dance" seems to be a rough translation of the name of a location featured within the novel -- Jean-Claude's newly opened dance club, the "Danse Macabre". In addition, the werewolves in the novel refer to both sex and dominance fights as "the killing dance". This represented a slight variation on Hamilton's practice of naming the novels after a fictional location within each novel for most of the Anita Blake series.

Information on this Page has been Gathered from the Following Sources:

  1. LKH at Penguin Putnum Publishing
  2. The Killing Dance on Wikipedia
  3. The Killing Dance,Dance, the novel.




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