Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (abridged)

Guilty Pleasures marked the debut of a writer who was destined to grow from cult favorite to a major best-selling author. Now, for long-time Anita Blake aficionados and newfound fans, Guilty Pleasures makes its audiobook debut. Readers will learn how Anita Blake started raising the dead - and killing the undead. And how she met Jean Claude, the master vampire destined to become not only her biggest nemesis, but her greatest lover.

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...

A rogue master vampire hits town, and Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own - but his enemies have other plans. And to make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They're two humans caught in the crossfire - or so Anita thinks

First time in trade paperback: The fourth novel in the number one New York Times best-selling series. Vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake is an expert at sniffing out the bad from the good. But in The Lunatic Cafe she's about to learn that nothing is ever as it seems, especially in matters of the not-so-human heart. Dating a werewolf with self-esteem issues is stressing Anita out. Especially when something-or someone-starts taking out the city's shapeshifters.

First, there were the dead in the graveyard, 200 years dead. I'd been hired to raise them to settle a dispute over who owned the land they were buried in. Then there were the three dead teenagers in the woods, slaughtered in a way I'd never seen before. And then they found the dead girl, drained of blood and left in her bed. I knew what that meant of course. It didn't take a degree in preternatural studies to figure out that something was wrong. And I was right in the middle of it. My name is Anita Blake. Welcome to my life ...

When Branson, Missouri, is hit with a death wave - four unsolved murders - it doesn't take an expert to realize that all is not well. But luckily for the locals, Anita Blake is an expert in the kinds of preternatural goings-on that have everyone spooked. And she's got an "in" with the creature that can make sense of the slayings - the sexy master vampire known as Jean-Claude.

In The Killing Dance, vampire hunter Anita Blake finds herself the victim when a $500,000 price is put on her head, and the two men in her life - a vampire and a werewolf-aren't helping the situation.

Anita Blake is a vampire hunter. But when someone else sets his sights on her prey, she must save them both from the inferno.

The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter backlist lights up the night. In her eighth adventure, Anita Blake can't turn her back on a former lover during the full moon. Especially since he's behind bars-and he's a werewolf.

Abridged edition: Number-one New York Times best-selling author Laurell K. Hamilton offers a sexy, suspenseful novel of human - and inhuman - passions, as vampire hunter Anita Blake must repay a favor to a man almost as dangerous as the ancient evil she's about to face....