Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter- The First Death

Anita Blake started out as a great character, and I really loved the books by Laurell Hamilton, but lately she has become a pale shadow of herself, more concerned with having sex with everything male around her, and acquiring shiny new powers everytime she screws somebody or something new. I'll admit that her latest book, The Harlequin, had some of the kind of character development that Anita Blake was formerly known for, but even though I still read the series, I wonder where the formerly independent character who took no shit has gone. Well, she's still around, but you're going to have to look at graphic novels now to find her.

"The First Death" tells the previously untold story of the scars on Anita's arms that she recieved on a hunt with Manny Rodriguez, her mentor as a Vampire and Supernatural Hunter.

Anita is called to the scene of a homicide by Dolph Storr, who wants her opinion on the corpse. It is that of a child, and Anita is sickened by the crime to the point that she throws up. This gets her some ribbing by Zerbrowski, another detective, but she is able to determine that they are being watched by a vampire. This is Adam, who the cops take into custody to ask some questions, despite his probably not being the vampire who killed the child.

Anita seeks out information at Dead Dave's. Dead Dave was a cop who became a vampire, and was forced off the force. He opened a bar instead, and still funnels Anita information. Anita asks about the place where Adam works, Guilty Pleasures, and about its owner, Jean-Claude. She learns that Jean-Claude is on the outs with the Prince of the City, Nikolaos, over something. Sex, Power, or perhaps something else, no one knows.

Later, Anita and Dolph visit the club. Anita won't look Jean-Claude in the eye, because she knows that is how Vampires take you over and control you, but he nearly does so with just the power of his voice. When he tries to have her look in his eyes, Anita gets pissed off and nearly bolts, but eventually ends up listening while Dolph questions Jean-Claude. From questioning others at the Club, he finds out that while Adam and Jean-Claude were working on the nights of the murders, another vampire always seemed to have a "sudden emergency" on those nights.

That night, there is another murder of a young child, and Anita gets called to the scene and prevents the mother from seeing her slain child, holding her while they both cry. Anita hates the vampire who is capable of doing such things, and Dolph makes sure she is present when they question Sean, the possible murderer, for anything she can learn from him. But when Sean finds out who she is, he goes Apeshit and tries to attack her for being the Executioner. Anita smashes him in the face with her cross bracelet, burning his face, and tells him she could execute him right now, but he and her crosses will get up close and personal if he doesn't tell her where the other bodies are buried.

Sean confesses that he and his "Kiss" or group of vampires, have slain many people and buried their bodies in a field, but that they have never killed kids, which he maintains is "sick". When she tries to get him to tell her where his "kiss" is living, he tells her, then once again freaks out, and she has to kill him when he attacks her. The police will take out the vampires, but Anita knows that his master possessed Sean at the end, and the vampires are already forwarned and will vanish. Dolph protests that cops need warrants, but Anita says as a vampire hunter, she already has the warrants she needs.

She calls on Manny, and they enter the house of the Kiss, only to find it already deserted. They bless the empty coffins with holy water, and find a dead human victim strung up in the house. They call in the police for that, and Anita goes to her main job, Re-Animators, Inc. Waiting there for her is Edward, under the guise of a man wanting a relative raised in a dispute over the family farm. Edward is a killer, a former assassin who found hunting humans too easy and moved on to supernaturals, as they posed more of a challenge. He threatens Anita to get information from her, but she refuses, and flees the office to go to a Zombie-raising job. Afterwards, Edward approaches her again, refusing to apologize for what he said in the office, but acknowledging that he made a mistake in dealing with her. Once again, he asks her for information and says quite matter-of-factly that he will torture her to get it. She asks him for time, and he gives her until the next afternoon to contact him. He also tells her his nickname among the Vampires. If Anita's is "The Executioner", his is "Death". Anita complains to herself that Edward even has a cooler nickname than her.

Meanwhile, the police have caught one of the vampires on Sean's list, but he collapsed at Daybreak. Anita stakes and beheads the vampire, then overhears a man telling a policeman that his wife, one of the victims, loved him and was about to leave her vampire lover. Since Sandra James worked in Real Estate, it is possible that they are staying in one of her properties. She gives Edward the information, and he finds out where the properties are in exchange for her and Manny investigating them.

On the third house, they hit paydirt and find the vampires, or at least their human servants. They force the people to show them the basement, but Manny is taken prisoner, and Anita surrenders to prevent them from killing him. They are both tortured, and Anita is branded with a cross on her arm. She passes out, and when she awakens, the vampires are awake. They decide to hunt her, and give her a little head start, but instead, she prepares to fight. She is caught and nearly killed by one of the vampires, who she takes out with a bottle of holy water after Edward shows up. Between them, they take down the rogues and set the house on fire, rescuing a gravely-injured Manny. When they hear sirens, Edward says he must leave, and to tell the police that she and Manny saved themselves before Manny collapsed. Anita agrees, and he leaves.

Upon leaving the hospital, Edward shows up and wants to have Anita join his hunt, but she has a hunt of her own, with the cops. Edward expresses diappointment and leaves.

This graphic novel had everything I enjoyed about classic Anita Blake: her attitude, her friends, and her more limited powers. It was refreshing to read about the old Anita once more, and I enjoyed the story immensely. The rest of the book after the story contains a guide to the book "Guilty Pleasures": the people, much of the story (including the ending), and the guide to Anita's world. This is a really kicking graphic novel and I'm looking forward to reading others set in the early Anita Blake world.