Book · in order

Anita Blake Books in Order

By the Bingerun team · How we choose the order →

Thirty novels published between 1993 and 2023, one continuous story about a St Louis animator who raises the dead for a living. Publication order is the only order, because the series is a single running timeline with no gaps to reorder.

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  1. Guilty Pleasures 1993

    Anita is hired to solve a string of vampire murders. Straight supernatural crime, and the cleanest entry point the series has.

  2. The Laughing Corpse 1994

    Zombie raising goes badly wrong. Establishes what Anita's day job actually costs her.

  3. Circus of the Damned 1995

    Introduces the love triangle that runs for the next decade.

  4. The Lunatic Cafe 1996

    The wereanimal community moves to the centre of the series.

  5. Bloody Bones 1996

    A case away from St Louis, and one of the darker entries in the early run.

  6. The Killing Dance 1997

    The triangle resolves, and the consequences drive several books after it.

  7. Burnt Offerings 1998

    The vampire Council arrives in St Louis. Assumes everything before it.

  8. Blue Moon 1998

    Anita leaves town to help Richard, which matters for the arc rather than the case.

  9. Obsidian Butterfly 2000

    Edward's book, set in New Mexico. Widely held to be the best in the series and the last of the crime-first era.

  10. Narcissus in Chains 2001

    The turning point. The ardeur is introduced and the balance of the series shifts decisively toward the relationships. Readers who quit usually quit here.

  11. Cerulean Sins 2003

    Deals with the fallout of Narcissus in Chains. Not a place to start.

  12. Incubus Dreams 2004

    Long, and heavily weighted toward the ardeur storyline.

  13. Micah 2006

    Much shorter than the others and focused on one relationship. Often called skippable online; it is not, because it moves a thread the next books depend on.

  14. Danse Macabre 2006

    Follows directly from Micah's events.

  15. The Harlequin 2007

    Brings back the Council threat properly.

  16. Blood Noir 2008

    A Jason-centred case built on mistaken identity.

  17. Skin Trade 2009

    Vegas, and a return to the crime structure of the earlier books.

  18. Flirt 2010

    Short, a single job that goes wrong. Fits between Skin Trade and Bullet.

  19. Bullet 2010

    Consequences of Skin Trade land here.

  20. Hit List 2011

    Anita and Edward hunt a serial killer in the Pacific Northwest.

  21. Kiss the Dead 2012

    A kidnapping case, tighter in scope than the books around it.

  22. Affliction 2013

    Micah's family, and a rot that infects the undead. One of the strongest late entries.

  23. Jason 2014

    The third of the short novels, centred on Jason Schuyler. Sits exactly here in the timeline.

  24. Dead Ice 2015

    Zombie pornography case, which returns the series to its animator roots.

  25. Crimson Death 2016

    Set largely in Ireland, and the longest book in the series.

  26. Serpentine 2018

    A wedding trip to Florida that turns into a case.

  27. Sucker Punch 2020

    A murder case in Michigan, and a deliberate return to procedural structure.

  28. Rafael 2021

    Short, centred on the wererat king. Reads as a companion to Sucker Punch.

  29. Smolder 2023

    Wedding plans collide with an ancient vampire threat.

  30. Slay 2023

    The thirtieth novel and the current end of the series, published November 2023. Continues directly from Smolder.

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Why this order?

This is one of the rare long series where the ordering question has a short answer: read them as they were published, starting with Guilty Pleasures in 1993 and finishing with Slay in 2023.

That is not laziness. Anita Blake is a single continuous timeline told by one narrator. Each novel picks up weeks or months after the last, relationships carry forward, and the cast accumulates rather than resets. There is no prequel, no parallel arc and no side trilogy to slot in. Skip a book and you will meet people who arrived in it.

The one thing that trips readers up is the short novels. Micah in 2006, Flirt in 2010 and Jason in 2014 are considerably shorter than the rest and focus tightly on one character. They are full entries in the timeline, not companion pieces, and they sit exactly where their publication dates put them. Micah in particular is often described online as skippable; it is not, because it moves the relationship that drives the following books.

There is a real shift in tone around Narcissus in Chains in 2001. Earlier books are supernatural crime novels with a romance thread. From roughly book ten the balance moves the other way, and the sexual content becomes a much larger part of the page count. Readers who bounce off the series almost always bounce there. It is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering it mid-run, because the crime plots do continue underneath.

The series is ongoing. Hamilton has published no Anita Blake novel since Slay in November 2023, and no title for a thirty-first has been announced, but she has not called it finished either.

Timeline 1993-2023

Every entry by release year: rows that share a year are a cluster, and the long droughts are called out on the rail.

  1. 1993 Guilty Pleasures
  2. 1994 The Laughing Corpse
  3. 1995 Circus of the Damned
  4. 1996 The Lunatic CafeBloody Bones
  5. 1997 The Killing Dance
  6. 1998 Burnt OfferingsBlue Moon
  7. 2000 Obsidian Butterfly
  8. 2001 Narcissus in Chains
  9. 2003 Cerulean Sins
  10. 2004 Incubus Dreams
  11. 2006 MicahDanse Macabre
  12. 2007 The Harlequin
  13. 2008 Blood Noir
  14. 2009 Skin Trade
  15. 2010 FlirtBullet
  16. 2011 Hit List
  17. 2012 Kiss the Dead
  18. 2013 Affliction
  19. 2014 Jason
  20. 2015 Dead Ice
  21. 2016 Crimson Death
  22. 2018 Serpentine
  23. 2020 Sucker Punch
  24. 2021 Rafael
  25. 2023 SmolderSlay

Where to play it today

Availability changes often and varies by region - links search each platform for Anita Blake.

Frequently asked questions

How many Anita Blake books are there?

Thirty novels, published between Guilty Pleasures in 1993 and Slay in November 2023. Four of them, Micah, Flirt, Jason and Rafael, are short novels rather than full-length, but all four are part of the main timeline rather than side stories.

What order should I read the Anita Blake books in?

Publication order, start to finish. There is no chronological alternative because the series runs as one continuous timeline with a single narrator, no prequels and no parallel arcs. Guilty Pleasures first, Slay last.

Can I skip any Anita Blake books?

Not without losing the thread. Each novel picks up shortly after the last and the cast accumulates rather than resets, so a skipped book means characters arriving with no introduction. The short novels get called skippable most often, and Micah is the one that least deserves it: it moves a relationship the following books are built on.

Where do Micah, Flirt, Jason and Rafael fit?

Exactly where their publication dates put them. Micah (2006) sits before Danse Macabre, Flirt (2010) between Skin Trade and Bullet, Jason (2014) after Affliction, and Rafael (2021) after Sucker Punch. They are shorter and tightly focused on one character, but they are timeline entries rather than companion pieces.

When does Anita Blake change tone?

Narcissus in Chains in 2001, the tenth book. The early novels are supernatural crime with a romance thread; from that point the ardeur storyline is introduced and the sexual content takes a much larger share of the page count. This is where most readers who quit the series quit. The crime plots do continue underneath, but the balance never goes back.

Is the Anita Blake series finished?

It has not been declared finished. Slay came out in November 2023 and no thirty-first novel has been announced with a title or date, which is a longer gap than the series usually runs. Laurell K. Hamilton continues to publish in her Merry Gentry series.

Which Anita Blake book is the best place to start if not the first?

The first, honestly. Guilty Pleasures is short and self-contained enough to tell you within a hundred pages whether the series is for you. If you want to know what the series is at its best before committing, Obsidian Butterfly (book nine) is the one most readers name, but it leans on eight books of history and will spoil several of them.

Do I need to read Merry Gentry too?

No. Merry Gentry is a separate Laurell K. Hamilton series about a faerie princess working as a private investigator in Los Angeles. It shares an author and a register but no characters, no setting and no continuity with Anita Blake.

How long does it take to read all the Anita Blake books?

The thirty novels run to roughly twelve thousand pages, which is somewhere around two hundred hours of reading, or about three hundred hours on audio. The first nine, up to Obsidian Butterfly, are about a third of that and form a natural first stretch.

Are the short story collections part of the series?

Not part of the spine. Strange Candy (2006) collects short fiction across several of Hamilton's worlds including a few Anita pieces, and Out of This World (2001) is a multi-author anthology containing one. Neither is required, and nothing in the novels depends on them.

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Last verified · Sources: en.wikipedia.org, laurellkhamilton.com, fantasticfiction.com, penguinrandomhouse.com

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