The Harlequin (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) | 
| Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Publisher: Jove
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $2.88
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Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 9131
Media: Paperback
Pages: 448
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0515144614
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780515144611
ASIN: 0515144614
Publication Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Similar Items:
| • | Danse Macabre (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 14) | | • | Micah (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 13) | | • | Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 12) | | • | Blood Noir (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 16) | | • | Cerulean Sins (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 11) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The 15th Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel now in paperback
Into Anita Blakes worlda world already overflowing with power come creatures so feared that centuries-old vampires refuse to mention their names.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 One of the series' best October 19, 2008
Theoden Humphrey (Oregon, US)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Harlequin starts off like Burnt Offerings, with a harbinger of vampiric doom; this time it isn't the Council itself coming to visit, but rather the long arm of vampire law: the Harlequin. These are the silent assassins of vampiredom -- the Justicars, for those who know White Wolf, and that was immediately how I thought of them -- who enforce the Council's law, observing and eliminating vampires who break the rules. I read another book not long ago that used Harlequins as a name for a group; in that book, the use of the name was, well, lame, but in this book, the use of "Harlequin" worked, mainly because the name itself was not supposed to project their uncompromising deadliness: it was more a reflection of the vampire love for melodrama, and for that, the references to Commedia dell'Arte worked. They use masks to communicate -- if you get a white mask they are observing, a red mask means they're going to hurt you, and a black mask means they're going to bake you brownies. No, not really. -- and they wear costumes and use the names of the original characters of the Commedia, Columbine and Pantaleon and so on. And since these vamps come from the founder of the council, the MOAD, it seems very likely that the ancient Italian characters came from these folk, not the other way around, and that's just cool.
Anyway, the Harlequin come to town (and ruin Anita and Nathaniel's anniversary date night, which is too bad because the date has implications for their future relationship, and also too bad because the thread of Nathaniel and Anita's relationship gets lost in the events that follow, which probably has further implications for their relationship) and then immediately start screwing with Jean-Claude's power base, by going after the weak link in the St. Louis vampire world: Malcolm and all of the un-blood-oathed vampires of the Church. Anita is understandably freaked out by these things, and she calls in the big guns: Edward. Who brings not only Olaf, but also his newest back-up: Peter.
So here's the thing with these books. The characters are so real, and so honestly multi-layered, that they do unpredictable things, and they do things that have serious repercussions, repercussions that may very well keep on echoing again and again. What's more, since the series is as long as it is, there have come to be many, many characters who are like this. Peter and Olaf are prime examples of that. When Edward brings these two, all Hamilton has to do is write down their names, have Anita see them just once; we immediately understand several things about this. We know that Olaf is going to cause real problems for Anita, since he wants to hunt and kill her, and we know that Peter's coming is not only dangerous for Peter, but also for Edward, and for Donna, Peter's mother, and we already have ideas and opinions on all of these things. We also wonder if this means that Edward has gone soft, since he had to have given in to sentiment in bringing his 16-year-old semi-adopted son, and the old Edward didn't have that sentiment; then we have to wonder if his softening will be a strength, as it is for Anita, or a weakness. Then we just have to wonder what will happen when a 16-year-old assassin-in-training is brought into this world. And then, when Edward reveals a few things about how Peter has been affected by his experiences -- mainly his sexual abuse from two years before, in Obsidian Butterfly -- we have to wonder about the implications of those factors, and how they will affect Anita, and Edward, and Peter, and Donna, and so on, so on.
The complexities just keep multiplying until it's almost dizzying. It was getting hard for me to remember all of the characters I was supposed to remember -- there's a moment at the end of this book when something is revealed about one of the bodyguards, and when it was revealed, I couldn't remember any details about that bodyguard's character in the first place, so I was confused -- but that's been taken care of: two of the bodyguards have died, and one other person, Sampson, the would-be siren, has gone back where he came from. The issue with Malcolm's church has been mostly resolved, and we've seen what deadly warriors Wicked and Truth are -- which was totally sweet -- and Haven, aka Cookie Monster, has returned to take over the lion pride, which will probably be helpful in the long run but will certainly add complications to Anita's life. Along with a new character for us to try to fathom.
And, I was glad to see, Richard may just have broken his last straw. Oh, happy day. But whether this ends the Richard saga or not, there were several threads that got taken care of, either by weaving them solidly into place in the overall story, or just by cutting them off. This book definitely made up for the problems of the last one, which focused a bit too much on the ardeur, to the detriment of the plot; although there are ardeur issues in this one, they offer new insights, not just repetitions, and the final revelation about the ardeur and its uses for Anita and Jean-Claude was truly excellent. Maybe I liked it more than others would because it ends up flipping the bird to Richard, in a way -- but it was cool, no matter what.
 Getting worried about this series. October 15, 2008
GinRobi (Timmins, ON, Canada)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Getting worried about this series.
As a reviewer, I try to give a brief rundown of the book so that those who read the review who plan on reading the book get a small inkling of what's going on, to explain what I liked, disliked, etc...
I can't do it this time around. That's how disappointed I am.
While I admit this one was better than Danse Macabre, it wasn't by much. At the beginning, it seems like we're back to the basic form of Anita and her job, Federal Marshall Anita Blake with one, soon to be two, orders of execution. Didn't last long, very much to my dismay.
While I admit I liked the whole `Harlequin' angle, I thought it original enough, it just turned into the same old-same old. Dull to the point of not wanting to continue. Very little in the way of investigation or fact finding. More explanations that could have used fewer words to get to the point. And while I praise that the sex didn't overrule the entire book like it did in Dance Macabre, there was still too much of it, especially the last third of the book. There's got to be a way of feeding the `ardeur' in as close as a manner but not everytime! Good grief! The repetitiveness of it is getting to be too much. I read a discussion earlier where someone posted, and I quote: "I was reading on her blog recently that she no longer was going to feel guilty about so much sex in the stories because some other author pointed out to her that it could be used to progress the story or define the character's relationships with one another." Okay, I'm sorry, but I didn't see any definement between characters. And Richard's same old-same old "unable to accept it" is getting very, very stale. Constantly running away instead of talking it out, of getting anything more out of it, he high-tails it, no pun intended. It's getting old, boring, and repetitive ~ I wanted to jump in the book and give Richard a good thrashing, even if only to ease my frustration.
I do, however, really like how the end of the book came about. More action, something new to think about. *sigh* I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens in Blood Noir. While this novel gives me hope after Danse Macabre, I want to see if the series is headed on a downslide. *shrug*
 Don't bother reading this LAZY AUTHOR! August 9, 2008
Saavedra Darling (America)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I wrote one review for this book but I don't think I successfully got the review inserted correctly...--and I feel so strongly about this review, because this book was so terrible I want readers to be warned .
SAVE your MONEY!! Don't waste it on this book, it is dreadful, trashy, obscene, gross...garbage storytelling.
Do read the first several books in this series but it is downhill from there. I read the first four books in this series and the heroine in the series, Anita Baker is a tough, savvy, independent, intelligent feminist Vampire Executioner--- this book is the 14th or 15th in the series and was just polar opposites in camparison to the heroine in the start of this series.
The heroine in this book is a whore to the vampires, werewolfs, wererats, 20 year old stripper boyfriend who is into S & M etc. she has the heroine living with two of her boyfriends--the author has made the heroine into a sex junky fool. She has the heroine screwing them all --the author has turned this promising heroine into a, porn, energizer-whore-bunny. And what I think is so funny, I think that the author took her personal physical characteristics and created the heroine Anita Blake to resemble herself--(look at early covers of Circus of the Damned and then look at the backcover photo of the author on this book note the likenss to herself)...so maybe this is Ms. Hamilton's twisted, sick fantasies in print but Ms. Hamilton spare the public please and readers save your money.
It is dreadful writing--if I could give this book no stars for a rating then that is what I would choose...or a 1/4 of a star just for accomplishing spelling.
The author needs to quit writing this series as she has lost her 'voice' in this series --what was a promising, satisfying series is now a gross, porn-slop story with no vision.
I will not be reading anymore in this series, my time is more valueable to waste reading a writer who is lazy --she wants to get a book publish and make a quick profit.
Happily, I did not purchase this book I got it from the library.
loved it July 24, 2008
chantal (narnia)
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
Many reader's of this series have become disappointed in the track/ path that series has taken. I have not. If one looks at Anita Blake's "abilities" and considers those, then the series had no choice but take this path. I for one still enjoy it throughly.
 Done July 24, 2008
CeCe Ronnie (Northwest)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
When I first started reading the Anita series I loved it. I liked that Anita was independent, had a career, kicked butt and had tension with the bad boys of the city. I am so sad that she has turned into a whore who just sleeps with the whole city. Gone is the career she had, how she kicked butt and was independent and how she interacted with the police and the people that worked there. I'm not a prude and don't mind good, fun sex in a book, but this is just porn at this point with little plot to drive it. And now, we are back to considering dating Jean Claude and Richard again? (blood noir) Seriously?? Now it's just a re-hash of old plots and some porn. Boring. After 15 books, I'm done with this series. I recommend turning to Patricia Briggs and the Mercy Thompson series or Carrie Vaughn and the Kitty series, who both offer strong, independent women, some romance, a whole lotta trouble and a PLOT!
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