The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 4) [Mass Market Paperback]

Laurell K. Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2002

Anita has fallen for the leader of a local pack of werewolves. She's survived a lot, but this love thing may kill her yet.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The zombie-raising business gets slow in December, so Anita Blake is starting to see some oddball cases. She's got a neatly typed list of eight missing lycanthropes given to her by Marcus, the leader of the local werewolf pack, who wants her to find them. The trouble is, Anita's occasionally furry boyfriend Richard is locked in a power struggle with Marcus. Jean-Claude, master vampire of the city and Anita's other love interest, is getting jealous as well. To top it off, Anita has to solve some horrific murders and keep her bounty-hunting friend Edward from killing Richard and Jean-Claude. Hamilton alternates between funny and fearsome in this larky series about a monster hunter with a few dark secrets. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A real rush...a heady mix of romance and horror. -- Jayne Ann Krentz --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Jove (September 24, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 051513452X
• ISBN-13: 978-0515134520
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (157 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Romance > Vampires
  • #69 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Contemporary

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great pulp noir/vamp fiction, December 28, 2000

By 

Dan Seitz "cinnatusc" (Somerville, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter) (Paperback)

Normally, I can't stand this genre; instead of something new, the cliches are just tossed together in a hash. But Laurell K. Hamilton keeps me coming back.

Part of it is the ongoing plot threads that go from book to book. Although these novels can stand alone, there are larger threads. Anita Blake's "romance" with Jean-Claude, the master vampire, for example, or the hints that Anita is something much stronger (and dangerous) than she or anyone else knows.

Another part is Anita. She isn't just a hard rock, lacking any humanity; she's really truly affected by the blood and death she's constantly surrounded by. She doesn't casually walk up to corpses, she has to compose herself before she looks. She's not callous, she's just able to hide her horror, fear and sadness better than most people. We only know because we're in her head.

"The Lunatic Cafe" is where the series, in my opinion, REALLY starts to pick up (read the other books "Guilty Pleasures", "The Laughing Corpse", and "Circus Of The Damned" first, it WILL help.) The soap opera kicks into high gear with a rather twisted little love triangle, not to mention some unfinished business between Anita and a vamp named Gretchen. Plus we get more of an introduction to the lycanthropes (werebeasts) of the city, their social structure, and the whole host of problems that go with THAT.

The novel itself is also pretty good, with the mystery at its center rather clever. Although she doesn't really play fair (we're not given much in the way of clues to possibly solve this mystery on our own), Hamilton does have a satisfactory solution. Like the other books so far, it's got a lightning-fast pace; poor Anita NEVER gets any sleep, something always happens to her.

This is, in the end, fun junk, great for airports, beaches, and the living room. They aren't classics, although they'd make great action movies, but the Anita Blake series is worth an occassional $7 now and again.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Werewolves? There wolves. There Anita Blake, Animator., May 25, 2001

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter) (Paperback)

In this fourth Anita Blake novel our heroine no longer bears the marks of Jean-Claude or any other master vampire and is exploring a relationship with Richard, the middle school teacher. Of course there are problems: Richard is a werewolf whose pack leader is threatening to kill him, Jean-Claude will not take "no" for an answer and has a female vampire who wants to kill Anita, and Dolph wants help identifying the something that is killing lycanthropes (shapeshifters). "The Lunatic Cafe" is the name of the hangout where the werefolk meet and Anita is finding out more about their kind than she really wants to know. Good thing they want her help in finding out who is butchering their kind, although her involvement is certainly a mixed blessing.

As always with Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels, she managed to bring everything together by the end of the story. With each book in the series I become more convinced that the "Vampire Hunter" label is to attract fans of Buffy, but Anita is really an Animator (she was a Vampire Hunter in the time BEFORE the first novel) and these books are considerably more gruesome. One of the subplots in "The Lunatic Cafe" concerns a pornographic/snuff film with werewolves and a human girl, with Edward showing up to avenge her death. These are very intense horror novels and Buffy wannabees picking these up without having a clue as to what awaits them inside are not going to sleep for a week. Hamilton has created an alternative reality where monsters have legal rights, and she explores this world with creativity and intelligence. Her heroine endures a lot of physical damage in these books and the mysteries she investigates are always complex. This is a first rate hooror series that deserves its reputation and its growing following.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, June 18, 2004

By 

Tanya "Tanya" (San Diego, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lunatic Cafe (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 4) (Mass Market Paperback)

I havnet read the series, my friends recommended "The Lunatic Cafe" to me so i started reading and i LOVED it! It's face paced, intriguing and a great read! This may be the best book I've read in a long time! I cant wait to read more by Laurell K. Hamilton in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter Novels and her other works! :)