The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton (unabridged audiobook read by Kimberly Alexis; 10 hrs on 8 discs): In this second installment of the adventures of Anita Blake, she spends much of her time not wanting to know things. To be fair, there’s a child-killing zombie on the loose, she’s gotten on the bad side of a powerful voodoo priestess, and the master vampire of the city insists that she be his human servant. So there’s a lot on her plate. Luckily, she’s always ready with a clever comment or snide remark. The ending introduces some darker themes, leading me to believe perhaps the series takes a turn for the serious after this, but this particular story was still a lot of fun. Brutally violent at times, but still a fun bit of horror-comedy.
A note on the audio: My husband happened to listen to an hour or two of this and was mightily entertained. He said that Alexis’s voice made it sound like a film noir, and he often laughed aloud at some of the offhand comments Anita makes. I think he felt bad until I assured him that it’s supposed to be funny.