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A review of The Lunatic Cafe

by Laurell K. Hamilton

The fourth novel in the chilling tales of Anita Blake, vampire hunter.

Reviewed by: April Dawn Duncan
About April Dawn Duncan

The Lunatic Cafe Anita's entering some new and dangerous territory. She's dating now. A frightening perspective indeed. Especially when the Master of the City wants your boyfriend dead because he's jealous. Monsters she knows how to deal with, but this is a whole new experience for Anita. Oh, and let's not forget the psychopath who's in love with the Master of the City. She'll be satisfied with nothing less than Anita's death. Oh amour.

On the business side of her life, which, let's be honest, makes up most of her waking moments, she's got problems. Lycanthropes were never her specialty, but she's about to get a crash course. Her boss has gone and overstepped his bounds, and she's stuck with a missing person who just happens to be furry. When it came to large sums of money, there was very little her boss Bert was unwilling to do. It didn't mean he had the right to involve his employees, but he always managed to get away with it somehow. He did have certain moral limits thankfully. It's just that his limits were not always congruent with his employees'. To top it off, the local pack has informed her that several lycanthropes have gone missing in the area. They want her help to find them, and they aren't taking no for an answer. Wasn't she supposed to be an animator, a vampire hunter, and a preternatural expert? Where did it say in her resume that she was a detective?

"The Lunatic Cafe", by Laurell K. Hamilton, crosses over from the realms of the dead to the realms of the wild. Hamilton opens up another layer of her mystical and violent world for us to lose ourselves in. Her pace and humor never waver as she plunges Anita into her most challenging situation yet. Anita's ironclad convictions are starting to rust around the edges, and once again, I am fascinated by her character development in this story. I will also note that there are several characters that also have interesting developments, especially as we go deeper into the series. Besides her many storytelling talents, Hamilton has a gift for breathing life into her characters. They are dynamic and unique, flawed and intriguing.

The other elements I absolutely love about this series are Hamilton's plots and the humor with which she tells her stories. As always, the plot in "The Lunatic Cafe" starts off with a mystery and ends with a twist. I have the greatest time piecing all the evidence and clues together as I read along. I guess it's the detective in me wanting out. I also find myself laughing at the oddest times because of how Anita uses humor to deal with life. I have often chided myself for laughing during moments of terror. Shame on me. Of course, Hamilton also knows when to be serious. So, there have also been moments where I've wanted to cry. Shh, don't tell anyone.

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: The Lunatic Cafe

Copyright © by April Dawn Duncan, 2003

Reviewed by April Dawn Duncan:
--Threshold: A Novel of Deep Time - by Caitlin R. Kiernan
--Yarrow: An Autumn Tale - by Charles de Lint
--The Morgaine Saga - by C. J. Cherryh
--Tigana - by Guy Gavriel Kay
--Ender's Game - by Orson Scott Card
--Foreigner: A Novel of First Contact - by C.J. Cherryh
--Guilty Pleasures - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Laughing Corpse - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Circus of the Damned - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Lunatic Cafe - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Bloody Bones - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--The Killing Dance - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Burnt Offerings - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Blue Moon - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Obsidian Butterfly - by Laurell K. Hamilton
--Narcissus in Chains - by Laurell K. Hamilton









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