The Laughing Corpse and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more



or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering
Sell Us Your Item
For a $0.97 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Start reading The Laughing Corpse on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) [Paperback]

Laurell K. Hamilton
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (234 customer reviews)

List Price: $15.00
Price: $10.87 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $4.13 (28%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 8 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Wednesday, May 29? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Summer Reading
Summer Reading
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store.

Book Description

August 2, 2005 Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

The early Anita Blake novels find new life in trade paperback-as perfect collectibles for long-time fans or as great ways for new readers to sink their teeth into the series.

In 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...

 


Frequently Bought Together

The Laughing Corpse (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) + Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) + Circus of the Damned (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
Price for all three: $34.94

Buy the selected items together


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Harold Gaynor offers Anita Blake a million dollars to raise a 300-year-old zombie. Knowing it means a human sacrifice will be necessary, Anita turns him down. But when dead bodies start turning up, she realizes that someone else has raised Harold's zombie--and that the zombie is a killer. Anita pits her power against the zombie and the voodoo priestess who controls it. Notice to Hollywood: forget Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Anita Blake is the real thing. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Anita Blake is one of the most fascinating fictional heroines since Scarlett O'Hara... -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

Hamilton just keeps getting better and better. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Product Details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Berkley Trade (August 2, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0425204669
  • ISBN-13: 978-0425204665
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (234 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurell K. Hamilton is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of two series that mix mystery, fantasy, magic, horror and romance. Her Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels from Berkley Books began with GUILTY PLEASURES (now a hugely successful graphic novel from Marvel - the first sexy paranormal comic ever!) and continues with the SKIN TRADE, number seventeen in the series, in which Anita's complex personal and professional relationships with a master vampire and an alpha werewolf continue to evolve. There are now more than 6 million copies of Anita in print worldwide, in 16 languages. Hamilton's Ballantine series features Fey princess and private investigator, Merry Gentry and there are now six novels exceeding one million copies in print. Divine Misdemeanors, the eighth in the series will debut Octobe 29, 2009. She lives in St. Louis County Missouri with her husband Jonathon Green, daughter, one pug dog and one boxer/pug dog.

Customer Reviews

Great characters, great plot development. Michaline Morrison  |  28 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
86 of 89 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
"The Laughing Corpse" is the second in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton, although the focus is much more on her job as an Animator than as the person the vampires call The Executioner. Once again the title is taken the name of a St. Louis hangout for those who like to visit the dark side, in this case a comedy club (helpful hint: zombies do not like to be the butt of jokes). This time around Anita is in way over her head with a whole bunch of serious problems. A lord of the underworld wants to pay her big time bucks to raise someone who has been dead for a couple of hundred years and does not like it that Anita has refused because the only way to do so required a human sacrifice. Her friend Catharine is getting married and wants Anita to be a bridesmaid, which involves wearing a pink gown that has to be altered to cover all of her scars. The voodoo priestess for the entire Midwest has learned how to put a person's soul back in their dead body, which stops the zombies from decaying, and Anita refuses to help her raise more zombies for profit. Meanwhile, Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of St. Louis who has already put two of his marks upon our heroine, demands Anita start acting like his human servant. But the case Anita is trying to focus regards a savage zombie that is going around murdering families in their home, making her problems with three powerful people who refuse to take "No" for an answer rather inconsequential. Like it says on the coffee mug her boss would not let her have at the office, "It's a dirty job and I get to do it."

I was surprised to decide at the end of "The Laughing Corpse" that it was not only an improvement over the first book in the series, but one of the best horror stories I have ever read (and I read a lot of horror novels). There is a lot going on her, but Hamilton weaves the various cases, most of which would have sustained an entire novel, into a coherent narrative. I really was surprised when everything came together in the end. Hamilton has a much surer sense of her character this time around and I have every reason to believe that future novels in the series will be at least as good as this way. These books deserve their reputation and popularity if the rest are any where near as good as "The Laughing Corpse."

Big Time Warning: this is a gruesome book. Younger readers of "The Laughing Corpse" are going to be upset by several of the scenes, especially when Anita investigates the bloody crime scenes and the climatic encounter. I read these sections in the light of day and they were still disturbing. Those who come to this series because of their love for Buffy the Vampire Slayer need to be told that this is a much darker world where the violence is brutally horrific and not beautifully choreographed. These books are much more intense. If they made this into a film it would give "The Exorcist" a run for its money. Remember, you were given fair warning.

Was this review helpful to you?
23 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Can't get enough of Anita Blake! April 8, 2004
Format:Hardcover
Animator and vampire hunter Anita Blake is back. And everyone wants a piece of her. Master vampire Jean-Claude wants her for his own. Millionaire Harold Gaynor threatens her life unless she agrees to raise a three-hundred-year-old corpse from the grave. The catch? Only a human sacrifice will raise a zombie that old. Voodoo priestess Dominga Salvador wants her to go in to business with her, raising zombies with souls. Is nothing sacred? Necromancer John Burke wants her to help him find his brother's murderer. However, he's a murder suspect himself. To make matters worse, a killer zombie is on a rampage, murdering and eating whole families. It's just an ordinary day for the Executioner.

THE LAUGHING CORPSE is the second novel in the Anita Blake series. The action is nonstop. The humor is sharp as a wooden stake. The vampires are (...). The romance is as hot as a date in Hell. And Anita is the girl of my dreams. My next date with her is in CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED. Can't wait!

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
39 of 45 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing March 5, 2000
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Ever wonder what the United States would be like with vampires and shapshifters? Where vampires are treated as living people and a person could be tried for murder when they staked the undead. Where the disease known as lycanthropy can make a regular person howl viciouly at the full moon and crave warm human flesh. And a woman known as an animator makes a living off of raising the dead...as in zombies. If you've ever wondered if the supernatural could be natural then I would encourage you to read this book and the other books of the Anita Blake series. Especially those who love blood, guts, gore, and a heroine who's tough enough to take on the whole supernatural world that Laurell K. Hamilton has created.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars A great second story
In all these books I never once get tired of hearing about Anita's true powers. This book is always a great reminder of who Anita is.
Published 2 days ago by love this app works well. wish it kepted scores though.
5.0 out of 5 stars Hamilton at her best
I really started the series about 5 years ago. Going back and reading them now made me realize why I fell in love with the Anita Blake series. Read more
Published 9 days ago by angela rigsbee
3.0 out of 5 stars Ms. Hamilton
I bought this because it was recommended by a friend who likes the Anita Blake series. I have had a hard time getting into the book though. Read more
Published 16 days ago by kay stevens
5.0 out of 5 stars Anita Blake Series
I will admit that I did NOT WANT to read the first Anita Blake book, I really didn't. I expected them to be as bad as Harris's Sookie books, or the Twilight books... Read more
Published 20 days ago by Papayart vs. GuavaLicious
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Vampiric author....
These books are very addictive. I love them and realize I can't wait to tap to go to the next page!!!
Published 21 days ago by SHEWOLFNPA
5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasureable Reading
Purchased for my great granddaughter. She is really the one that loves it! :) She has much time to read these days.
Published 25 days ago by Lois Thirstrup
5.0 out of 5 stars New to the Anita Blake novels
At the suggestion of a friend, I recently started the Anita Blake series. It was a little difficult getting into the 1st book, but once I did...I was hooked! Read more
Published 1 month ago by SaraHouston
5.0 out of 5 stars The Laughing Corpse
Another great book in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Couldn't put the book down almost read in one sitting.
Published 1 month ago by mchlkring
5.0 out of 5 stars Keeps getting better
More of the breakneck pace and non stop action that I am coming to associate with Hamilton, Anita is up against the voodoo priestess from hell, a sinister handicapped millionaire... Read more
Published 1 month ago by alecia
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read
Just the same as Book 1, marvelous and absolutely captivating. Can't believe I didn't find this series sooner, but oh am I ever glad I stumbled across it at all! Read more
Published 2 months ago by Rachael Schartner
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews



Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton
Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton
 

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Forums

There are no discussions about this product yet.
Be the first to discuss this product with the community.
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 





Look for Similar Items by Category