Circus of the Damned is third book in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

/mystery

Mystery fiction

Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...

 novels by Laurell K. Hamilton

Laurell K. Hamilton

Laurell Kaye Hamilton is an American fantasy and romance writer. She is the author of two series of stories. Hamilton is known for her New York Times-bestselling Anita Blake series, featuring a professional zombie raiser/supernatural consultant for the police as the protagonist in a world where...

.

Plot introduction

Circus of the Damned continues the adventures of Anita Blake. Anita simultaneously attempts to solve a series of murders by an unknown vampire pack, fend off the advances of her would be vampire master, Jean-Claude

Jean-Claude

Jean-Claude is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Within the novels, Jean-Claude's role is as one of the primary love interests of the series heroine, Anita Blake....

 and deal with various people and creatures who wish her to reveal Jean-Claude's identity and location. As with its predecessors, Circus of the Damned blends elements of supernatural

Supernatural fiction

Supernatural fiction is a literary genre exploiting or requiring as plot devices or themes some contradictions of the commonplace natural world and materialist assumptions about it....

, hardboiled

Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...

 detective

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

, and police procedural

Police procedural

The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

 fiction.

Explanation of the title

Within the novel, the "Circus of the Damned" is the name of a supernatural circus that operated by Jean-Claude and serves as one of the main locations within the book. Hamilton employed the practice of titling the novels after a location within each novel for most of the books in the series.

Major characters

Circus of the Damned features the following major characters.

• Anita Blake
  Anita Blake
  Anita Blake is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Subsequently, she has also appeared in the Dabel Brothers/Marvel Comics adaptation of her first novel, Guilty Pleasures....
  
  : Anita continues her progression, as she initially is willing to kill Jean-Claude rather than be marked as his human servant, but ultimately continues to accept her role as a bridge between the worlds of humans and monsters in order to save the city. At the end of Circus of the Damned, Anita sees Jean-Claude as something more of a person and is willing to continue dating Richard, even though he is one of "the monsters."
• Jean-Claude
  Jean-Claude
  Jean-Claude is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton. Within the novels, Jean-Claude's role is as one of the primary love interests of the series heroine, Anita Blake....
  
  : Hamilton reveals a little more of Jean-Claude's character in this novel. Jean-Claude's control over the city is apparently precarious, and, true to form, he attempts to use this very weakness to force Anita to surrender to him, showing his previously established manipulative, seductive, and somewhat ruthless nature. In addition, Jean-Claude proves himself quite brave in his vastly overmatched battle against Mr. Oliver, and quite deeply attached to Anita when he does not attempt to kill her in revenge for her almost killing him, nor does he surrender his romantic pursuit.
• Richard Zeeman
  Richard Zeeman
  Richard Alaric Zeeman is a fictional character in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Character introduction:...
  
  : A "nice guy" alternative to Jean-Claude's manipulative seduction, Richard's good looks and brown hair remind Anita of Phillip, the doomed stripper from Guilty Pleasures
  Guilty Pleasures (novel)
  Guilty Pleasures is a horror/mystery novel by Laurell K. Hamilton.-Plot introduction:Guilty Pleasures introduces the character of Anita Blake, vampire hunter, and her world, an alternate history where magic, vampires, werewolves and other supernatural elements exist...
  
  . Richard's good looks, charm, and emotional vulnerability contributed to the love/hate relationship Anita developed with him over the next several novels.
• Mr Oliver: Mr Oliver is the most threatening opponent Anita had faced to date, and possibly the most threatening ever. By personifying her previous attitude that vampires were irredeemable monsters, Mr Oliver helped move Anita to some middle ground.
• Alejandro: An ancient vampire who is the first vampire to share all four marks with her,and thus the first to make her his full human servant, though she is by no means servantile towards him. Because of his actions in this novel she is free'd of Jean Claudes marks that she had gained in Guilty Pleasures.

Other characters

• Circus of the Damned featured reappearances from Anita's coworkers, Bert, and Ronnie, police officers Dolph and Zerbrowski, and recurring character John Burke

• The novel introduced recurring characters Larry Kirkland and Stephen.

• Non-recurring characters include: Jeremy Rubens, the leader of Humans Against Vampires, Karl Inger, the human servant of Mr Oliver, The first vampire to make her their full human servant Alejandro, Rashida, Melanie, and Marguerite, a beautiful but unstable blue eyed blonde who is Yasmeen's human servant and lover. After Yasmeen was killed, Marguerite clawed her eyes out in grief.

• The death toll in Circus of the Damned includes: Calvin Rupert and Reba Baker, Humans Against Vampires members killed by Alejandro's pack; hospital guard Jimmy Dugan, an unnamed guard, an unnamed nurse and an unnamed vampire counsellor, killed by Rupert in an animalistic vampire state; Calvin Rupert, killed again as a vampire by Anita and John Burke; Raju, Ronald, and two unnamed men, all men ensorcelled by Melanie and killed by Anita; two unnamed snake creatures killed by Anita and Edward during the final battle; an unnamed child vampire and two unnamed women vampires, all members of Alejandro's pack and killed (probably by Edward) during the final battle; Yasmeen, killed by Alejandro, and Oliver and Alejandro both killed by Anita.

Major themes

• Circus of the Damned combines elements of supernatural
  Supernatural fiction
  Supernatural fiction is a literary genre exploiting or requiring as plot devices or themes some contradictions of the commonplace natural world and materialist assumptions about it....
  
   and detective fiction
  Detective fiction
  Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
  
   to continue a formula that Hamilton used for her first several novels.
• The novel also continues Anita's character progression, as she continues to accept her own role as a supernatural being and her relationship with the "monsters" of Saint Louis, particularly Jean-Claude and Richard.
• In this novel, Hamilton first sets up the love triangle
  Love triangle
  A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
  
  between Anita and Richard and Jean-Claude.
• This novel begins Richard's character arc, as he shows his resentment of Jean-Claude and his concern with his status as a werewolf.