The Laughing Corpse

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I enjoyed this book just as much as, if not more than, the first.

Anita's character really develops in this book. I love the internal discussions she has with herself knowing that she is refusing to believe and accept everything that she is. LKH does not have me screaming at Anita as much as I do other strong female characters, as although Anita takes on dangerous tasks and gets into compromising situations, she does play it safe sometimes, for example, when she takes Jean-Claude (Mmmm!) with her to Tenderloin or when she takes the police with her to Dominga Salvador's.

I love Jean-Claude, so was pleased to see his character developing in this story. This is where I was screaming at Anita to stop turning him down, although I understand why she does and in fact it does fit her character to admit her desire for him, but refuse to act on it.

Dominga Salvador was fantastic: scary, powerful and unpredictable. I loved the contrast between harmless nice old granny to evil voodoo priestess. It was almost a shame to kill her off, she was such a magnificent character with so much potential and I would have enjoyed reading more stories with her - definitely an opportunity for a spin off there!

These stories have a good pace and keep you reading for more. They seem to be following a trend of strong female gets into something deep, has to solve the problem, kill the baddies and watch her back in the meantime. I hope LKH varies the structure slightly for the next book, as although these kind of stories by nature are slightly predictable, they need to stay fresh to keep the reader hooked on the series.



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