The Laughing Corpse
Review by Javelina, submitted on 12-Aug-1994

The Executioner is back, in a tale perhaps a tad grimmer than _Guilty Pleasures_. Most of the action revolves around attempts to get Anita Blake to perform a particularly unacceptable resurrection, and hunting a homicidal zombie. Vampires occupy a less central role, but are far from absent. This is due mostly to a severe difference of opinion between Blake and the elder vampire who applied two so-called 'marks' (having nothing to do with fang injuries) to her in the previous book. Jean-Claude seems to have made a major tactical error. Semantics usually does not much change issues of fact, but he might get further in his plans for our assertive heroine if he had called the arrangement he offered her something else. Familiar, perhaps, or companion... "human servant" was definitely not the right word choice in this instance. He seems unwilling to drop the issue.

This is an unabashed adventure story, not graahnd leehtrahtcha, and those easily offended by (generally detached) body parts and sentence fragments should hunt elsewhere. Anita has the annoying tendency to call cartridges 'bullets', probably because she is too young to recall the days when revolvers came with bullet molds as boxed sets. One might even suggest that The Executioner owes her hide to the invention of cased ammunition. ... purists have much to complain of in this world and doubtless most others.

A few other points may reflect either consistency issues or flaws in Anita's recollection: she *should* know what happened to the hapless individual who gave Jean-Claude his distinctive scar, shouldn't she? And as another commentator pointed out, Ms. Blake does have an odd tendency to oscillate between affection for stuffed penguins/small children/hurt zombies... and willingness to engage in gag-threshold completion involving body parts of humans, including immature ones. Still, humans are odd and sometimes inconsistent creatures.

No preternatural entities of any sort face trial in this tale, which is only a disappointment in that it remains unclear what sort of procedures give Blake her occasional hunting licenses. For all her complaints at no longer being allowed to stake vampire kills on general principles, she has nothing to say about any inconvenience involved in the issuance of writs of execution. Methinks Hamilton's judicial system may be biased against the previously living. _The Laughing Corpse_ tastes like the second volume of three or more, so perhaps the due process issues will be clarified at some future point.

If something reminiscent of a collision between Pat Elrod and Mickey Spilane appeals, and a protagonist intolerant of your undead lifestyle is tolerable, consider picking this one up.

Bibliographic details:
_The Laughing Corpse_
Laurell K. Hamilton
Ace Books, New York, 1994
ISBN # 0-441-00091-6