Since the big cliffhanger from Vol. 1 was whether or not Anita Blake, vampire killer, was going to kiss some guy she didn't really want to kiss, I was in no huge hurry to pick up Vol. 2 to find out if she mashed lips or not.

She did. But really, so what -- in a book about vampire murders and were-rats, was a kiss really the best hook to keep readers interested? Well, let's be fair -- the people enjoying this book are mostly the people who avidly read every Anita Blake novel that drips from author Laurell K. Hamilton's fingertips, and sure, they do tend to worry more about Anita's sex life than all that other messy vampire-killing stuff, so I suppose the big faux kiss with vampire plaything Phillip is about as interesting as it gets.

But let's pretend the real focus here is the serial murders of vampires in St. Louis. Anita has been hired by the master vampire, a cute little schoolgirl named Nikolaos, to find out who's doing the deed. Anita, who has killed more than her share of vamps along the way, "figures it out" on several occasions in the book, but she's always wrong until the real villain, apparently frustrated by the lack of plot development, reveals himself to her, then leaves her to "certain death" but doesn't stick around to make sure she actually dies. No, it's not Dr. Evil, but it might as well be. Then there's a big climactic battle scene, and wow, master vampires really aren't all that hard to kill, are they?

Oh come on, you knew Anita was going to win. I mean, there's acres of Anita Blake novels to go, and you just know they're going to keep making them into comics. Maybe next time they'll hire someone to "adapt" the novel who actually can make sense of Hamilton's plots.