Part of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, book 5
First published 2007
Anita Blake arrives in a small town with a straightforward job. She needs to relocate two centuries old burial sites to settle a property disagreement. The work should be routine for someone with her expertise in the supernatural. Then local teenagers start turning up dead. Three bodies appear with suspicious circumstances that point beyond ordinary murder. When Anita discovers a completely drained corpse, she realizes something far more dangerous stalks the community. The bloodless victim suggests a predator that feeds on human life force. Anita must determine what kind of creature could leave such distinctive marks while continuing her excavation work. The land dispute that brought her to town becomes secondary to stopping whatever hunts the locals. She faces a threat that combines her professional knowledge of the undead with her skills as an investigator. The case forces her to confront an malevolent presence that has chosen this particular town as its hunting ground.
Genres: mystery, horror, supernatural, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: investigative-protagonist, supernatural-threat
Setting: Small Town
Period: 2 Centuries Ago
328 pages · Hardcover · Berkley Hardcover
Content warnings: violence