The Killing Dance

The Killing Dance is a novel by Laurell K. Hamilton, published in 1997 and the sixth book of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. Its central character is a vampire hunter and zombie reanimator.

Anita's private life is already complicated, because she is dating both a vampire and a werewolf. Somebody then puts a price on her head, which is a problem that cannot be solved by romance. That is a professional problem rather than a private one, because the person paying never has to say why.

She turns to Edward, a hitman, for help. Working out who is behind the threat is difficult because Anita has made enemies among human beings and among everything else in the city, and any one of them could be the buyer.

The case running alongside it begins with the body of a young woman drained of blood and carved with strange symbols. Anita identifies them as the marks of a long-forgotten cult, and the novel sets a ritual murder investigation against the contract on her own life.