Circus of the Damned is the third book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K Hamilton. The series also includes Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, The Lunatic Cafe, and fifteen additional books.http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/works.html There are more than six million copies of the books in print worldwide and the books have been translated into sixteen languages.http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/works.html

Circus of the Damned was initially released in 1996, and has been made into a five part comic book series. Marvel Comics has released a prequel to the series in comic book form, and a twelve-part series of the first novel in the Anita Blake series, 'Guilty Pleasures, as well as a five-part series of the second novel, The Laughing Corpse.http://www.comicvine.com/anita-blake-vampire-hunter-guilty-pleasures/49-18119/

Like Anita Blake, the main character of the series, the author lives in St. Louis and has a degree in biology, as well as one in English.http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Laurell.html The Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series was the author’s second attempt at serial fiction. The first series began with the book Nightseer in the Heroic Fantasy genre, but went no further than the first novel.http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Laurell.html She has also written a novel in the Star Trek: The Next Generation franchise of novels.http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Laurell.html

Jean Claude, who is now the Master of the City of St. Louis, continues his pursuit of Anita Blake, which puts her in the middle of a turf war. Alejandro and Mr. Oliver, an ancient vampire, have come to town and want both St. Louis and Anita for their own. Things become more complicated when Jean Claude introduces her to a handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They seem to be two humans caught in a supernatural world as they battle a giant cobra together, but soon it is revealed that Richard is actually a werewolf.

The character of Larry Kirkland is introduced as a new animator, with Anita taking him on as her protege. He and Anita are attacked by members of Humans FIrst, an anti-vampire organization. Afterward, he assists Anita both with a police investigation into a plot to force the vampires of St. Louis into a killing spree and with her work animating zombies.http://books.google.ca/books?id=eTUji9WU6XYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=circus+of+the+damned&hl=en&ei=bSQgTbbzLoGqsAPfxsWzAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

• "The sexiest vampire in the business." — Jayne Ann Krentzhttp://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9780515134483

• "What The DaVinci Code did for the religious thriller, the Anita Blake series has done for the vampire novel." — USA Todayhttp://www.isbnlib.com/preview/0515134481/Circus-of-the-Damned

• "The third novel of Hamilton's Anita Blake series has the petite necromancer fighting a giant cobra and a rogue vampire, Alejandro, who wants her for his human servant. Anita is still resisting the advances of Jean-Claude, St. Louis's master vampire, but she does need him on her side, if not in her bed. Anita's reluctant involvement in the odd goings-on at the supernatural Circus of the Damned introduces her to Richard, the werewolf of her dreams, and Larry, her powerful but nervous partner in zombie-raising." — Amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/Circus-Damned-Anita-Vampire-Hunter/dp/0441001971/ref=tmm_pap_title_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1293941427&sr=1-1