The Laughing Corpse
by Laurell K. HamiltonSeries: Anita Blake Vampire Hunter #2
Published by Berkley on August 2nd 2005
SubGenres: Urban Fantasy
Format: AudioBook
Pages: 301
Source: Purchased
Add to Goodreads
Purchase at Amazon | Google Play | Kobo
Harold Gaynor offers Anita Blake a million dollars to raise a 300-year-old zombie. Knowing it means a human sacrifice will be necessary, Anita turns him down. But when dead bodies start turning up, she realizes that someone else has raised Harold's zombie--and that the zombie is a killer. Anita pits her power against the zombie and the voodoo priestess who controls it.
In The Laughing Corpse Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried-and some people better off dead...
I’m going to try to keep this review short and sweet. We will see how it goes because I’m doing a re-read of one of my favorite series right now. The Anita Blake series got me into the Urban Fantasy genre, and this is the third time I’ve read the second book in the series. It has to be one of my favorite series in the book because of how dark and twisted it is as far as other books. It also was the book that introduced Anita’s hidden powers. She may be small, but she is one fierce kick-butt female heroine.
The Laughing Corpse, which is the second book in the series, focuses on Anita’s Animator/Necromancer skills and some very sick twisted villains in the story. If you read the first book and thought the former Master of the City was bad, you haven’t read anything until you meet Dominga Salvador. She is one voodoo priestess that will give you nightmares. Anita has to track down who could’ve raised a zombie that is now on a killing spree. She ends up dealing with more than she bargained for in this story. Be prepared for an action-packed, twisted storyline in this book, although you will also get Anita’s ways of dealing with danger. She’s scared at times in this book, but she has humor too in this book.
Overall, this book gets 5-stars from me, and it is one of my favorites in the series. Anita Blake will forever be one of my favorite kick-butt heroines. I know later on the books change a lot, but I enjoy them. I like how Anita grows in the books. There is no sex in this book, but a lot of action. It’s been a while since I read the earlier books, so it was nice to be back in the previous world of Anita Blake and how much she hated Jean-Claude but also loved him in her ways. I can’t wait to dive into the next books because I’ve missed this world that Laurell K. Hamilton created. I love this series, and I’m glad it’s getting me out of my reading funk I’ve been having lately.
This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale. It will help sponsor future giveaways but costs you nothing extra. You can read the full disclosure underneath the Privacy Policy.
About Laurell K. Hamilton
Laurell K. Hamilton's is a paranormal thriller writer and is a regular on the New York Times Bestseller List through titles in her two series Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter and Meredith Gentry: Fairy Princess/Private Eye. The Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, published by Penguin Group under the Berkley Books imprint, spans 24 novels, including Dead Ice, which will be released early June 2015. With over 6 million copies in print worldwide and available in over 16 languages, there is no end in sight for Anita, the professional necromancer and licensed vampire executioner.
Marvel Comics has worked closely with Hamilton to adapt her books in the Anita Blake series into comic book medium with a stunning amount of success. The first installment of the graphic novel, Guilty Pleasures, was released in July 2007 and was the number one best selling graphic novel for that month. The Meredith Gentry series published by Ballantine Books features Meredith Gentry as a part‐human, part‐fey private investigator. Under orders from her aunt Andias, Queen of the Unseelie Court, Meredith is in a race to become pregnant and ascend the throne before her cousin Cel does. The cost of failure will be her own life and that of those who follow her. The latest Merry book, Divine Misdemeanors, debuted December 8th, 2009.
Laurell Hamilton resides in St. Louis County, Missouri, with her husband and partner Jonathon Green, her daughter, and their furbarian horde.
Her education includes degrees in English and biology from Marion (now Indiana Wesleyan University)
My obsession with reading started over 30+ years ago when I went to my first Scholastic Book Fair and found R.L. Stine's Fear Street series. Later, I came across Anne Rice's novels at my public library when I was fourteen when my obsession with vampires started. I was the girl who preferred to be a vampire over a princess any day. My husband says I would leave him a heartbeat for a vampire that looked like Spike or Angel (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) or Damon Salvatore from The Vampire Diaries. (It's true, though, and he's accepted it.)
- ARC Review: ‘Archangel’s Eternity’ by Nalini Singh - May 13, 2026
- Book Blitz + Giveaway: ‘Mr. Emotionally Unstable’ by Alina Jacobs - May 12, 2026
- Cover Reveal: ‘Burning for You’ by Kasie Haley - May 11, 2026