Anita Blake is a vampire killer and raises the dead for a living as an animator but now she is drawn into a personal feud between two alpha males of whom one she is involved over the control of a local werewolf pack and she must reevaluate what she thinks is right and wrong while being wary of the advances of the St Louis Vampire master. Anita is a vampire slayer and she also animates the dead but now she is pulled into a personal skirmish which involves her boyfriend and another alpha male over the control of the pack, and still maintains her stand from the advances of the vampire master, Jean Claude. It is the early stages of a relationship between Anita and Richard the werewolf, and she is quite eager to see where things are set to lead. In the story the Lycanthropes are able to change shape to werewolves, tigers and even rats or swans. The pack summons her to investigate absence of eight lycanthropes and she agrees to help because she wants to be closer to the situation that her boyfriend is dealing with. When she is alerted about a hunter who died at the nature center, she discovers that his cause of death was by a shape changer while observing the wounds and arguing over jurisdiction with the police. There is also Hindu immortal figure which is found in the river and this lead them to think witches could be behind it.
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Her personal relationship with Richard is always an obstructive factor to the investigation and Jean Claude makes sure to capitalize on this factor as much as possible. When Anita and Richard try to save a member of the pack, they find it is a trap. Apparently Gunderson, a lowly member of the pack and a shape shifting swan who was cursed by a witch because of pride has been making a profit by selling out his other members. He was using the help of the law enforcement of the area to the excitement of the local hunters to hunt the lycanthropes for sport.
Anita and Richard, along with a bounty hunter called Edward are captured by Gunderson, and the sheriff. However, they are able to get free from the cages and kill the hunters. At the end, the relationship between Anita and Richard faces trouble because of her beliefs because they are evolving and she starts to take an interest in the vampire, Jean Claude as everything takes a shade of grey.
Best part of story, including ending:
I like the story because it focuses on the magical creatures as the underdogs at some points even though they have obvious power over the human race all the time. It shows a lot of restraint.
Best scene in story:
I like the scene in chapter 6 where a female vampire who is very old gets the better of Anita by mind controlling a nearby police officer to threaten her to lower her weapon. This makes Anita not attack her even though she has a gun pointed to the vampire. It was quite ingenious and resourceful to use what was around her.
Opinion about the main character:
I like that Anita is the center of attention even though she is not necessarily the most powerful, but she is certainly feared.
