Women Writers

The Laughing Corpse

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Bookstores sheives are now packed with great female writers in the genre of horror / fantasy / science fiction / mystery thrillers. In your local Barnes & Noble and Borders you'll likely see Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse series), Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series), Kim Harrison (Rachel Morgan series), and Kelly Armstrong (Women of the Otherworld series). What's so great about these books, women are the heroines, so if you're a female reader you can relate to certain aspects of the novel. Personally, I'm a fan of Charlaine Harris' Sookie series, and I can't wait for book 6, Definitely Dead; it will be released 5/2/06.

Hamilton's book, The Laughing Corpse is the second book in her Anita Blake series. Anita an Animator, must solve a brutal murder streak, and she must also save herself from an over zealous want to be client who wants her to do the unthinkable act.

Hamilton's descriptions are phenomenal; she makes every murder scene lucid. She writes, "I poked the side of it with two fingers. It was like poking a side of fresh beef. A nice, solid feel to it. My fingers traced the bumps of bone, ribs under the flesh. Ribs. Suddenly I knew what I was looking at. Part of the rib cage of a human being. There was the shoulder, white bone sticking out where the arm had been torn away".

The Laughing Corpse is a good read for its well thought out plot, but is seemingly to convenient when it all comes together. It is highly descriptive, but not tedious. Lastly is should be read by any dark fantasy lover.

I highly recommend Bite edited by Laurell K. Hamilton. It's an awesome female heroine anthology written by women.