Danse Macabre (novel)
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| Author | Laurell K. Hamilton |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter |
| Genre | Horror, Mystery, Erotic novel |
| Publisher | Berkley Books (Berkley edition) |
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Publication date
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June 27, 2006 (Berkley edition) |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 496 p. (Berkley edition) |
| ISBN | (Berkley edition) |
| OCLC | 66526961 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3558.A443357 D36 2006 |
| Preceded by | Micah |
| Followed by | The Harlequin |
Danse Macabre is the fourteenth book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.
Danse Macabre is French for Dance of Death. The phrase historically refers to a late-medieval allegory of the universality of death, in which Death personified summons people to the world beyond the grave despite their objections. Originally a dramatic performance, in the centuries since it has been represented in art, poetry, and music.
The modern superstition is simply that "Death" appears at midnight every year on Halloween. He calls forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle. The skeletons dance until the rooster crows at dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.
Within the novel, "Danse Macabre" is the name of the vampire ballet company that performs during the course of the novel's events. It also refers to the general "vampire politics" that serve as the central conflict in the plot. Although "Danse Macabre" is also the name of a vampire-themed nightclub owned by Jean-Claude, the nightclub appears only briefly at the end of this novel.
Danse Macabre appears to take place a few weeks after the events of Incubus Dreams and almost immediately after the events of Micah, assuming that the series of serial killings that Anita's friend Ronnie refers to as occurring two weeks earlier are the killings Anita investigates in Incubus Dreams.
Unlike the previous thirteen novels, neither Anita's role as a Federal Marshal nor her job as a zombie animator plays any part in this novel. Instead, Anita must juggle a series of problems arising from her own increasing power, Jean-Claude's vampire politics, and her own personal life, complicated in this case by Anita's apparent pregnancy.
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