Cerulean Sins (novel)

Cerulean Sins
2003 US hardcover edition
Author	Laurell K. Hamilton
Cover artist	Craig White (US editions)
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter
Genre	Horror, Mystery, Erotic novel
Publisher	Berkley Books (Berkley edition)
Publication date	2003 (Berkley edition)
Media type	Print
Pages	405 p. (Berkley edition)
ISBN	0-425-18836-1
Previous	Narcissus in Chains
Next	Incubus Dreams

Cerulean Sins is the eleventh in the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series of horror/mystery/erotica novels by Laurell K. Hamilton.

Timeline

The events of this novel take place in early September, about three months after the events of the novel Narcissus in Chains and a bit over two years since the beginning of the series.

Time markers:

• September:
  • Cerulean Sins, chapter 01: "It was early September, a busy time of year for raising the dead."
  • Cerulean Sins, chapter 62: "Summer is over and gone, but autumn is here, and next month is October with the bluest skies of the year."
  • Cerulean Sins, chapter 04: "She (Musette) was due three months from now, just after Thanksgiving. So what the hell was she doing in town a month and some change before Halloween?"
• Since the events of Narcissus in Chains (June):
  • Cerulean Sins, chapter 11: "I'd done my best to forget what happened when Belle Morte caused the ardeur to rise months ago. Thanks to her, I’d participated in the closest thing I hoped to ever get to an orgy."
  • Cerulean Sins, chapter 01: "Rumor says you got cut up by a shifter a few months back, and now you’re one of them."
  • Cerulean Sins, chapter 15: "Micah thinks that feeding the ardeur at least once a day for three months has taken its toil on Nathaniel."

Other time-related information:

• Jason Schuyler is 22 years old. Cerulean Sins, chapter 05.
• Tammy Reynolds is three months pregnant. Cerulean Sins, chapter 21.
• Darrin Storr, Dolph's son, is 25. Cerulean Sins, chapter 39.

Plot

Cerulean Sins continues the adventures of Anita Blake. In this novel, Anita continues to try to bring some order to her personal life, while simultaneously confronting a power play by Jean-Claude's vampire master, Belle Morte, and attempting to solve a series of brutal killings by an unidentified shapeshifter. As with the other later novels in the series, Cerulean Sins blends elements of supernatural, detective, and erotic fiction.

Summary

• Cerulean Sins takes place a few months after the events of the previous novel, Narcissus in Chains, and Anita is now living happily with Micah and Nathaniel and dating Micah and Jean-Claude. However, as usual, Anita is confronted by a series of simultaneous problems.
  • First, she appears to be attracting the attention of a number of spies, including "Leo Harlan", a professional assassin who claims to want Anita to reanimate one of his ancestors to assist in genealogical research, and two mercenaries whom Anita arrests via her Federal Marshall status after noticing them following her.
  • Second, Jean-Claude is unpleasantly surprised by an early visit from Musette and her entourage, all of whom are representatives of the founder of Jean-Claude's bloodline, Belle Morte, and represent an attempt by Belle to test and possibly punish or capture Jean-Claude and his followers.
  • Third, Anita learns of a series of shockingly brutal rapes and murders, apparently committed by a shapeshifter serial killer. However, because of her deteriorating relationship with Dolph, Anita is unable to get cooperation from the police in solving the crimes.
• As usual, Anita resolves each of these conflicts with a combination of ruthlessness, magical power, and the loyalty of her friends and lovers.
  • Anita ultimately learns that the mercenaries have been spying on her because they consider recruiting her for a secret mission overseas. As Agent Bradford warned Anita in Obsidian Butterfly, Anita has come to the attention of one or more secret agencies within the US government. Luckily for Anita, at her mentor Marianne's insistence, Anita had stopped using animal sacrifices to raise zombies. Without the additional power granted by an animal sacrifice, Anita's zombies were sufficiently "zombie-looking" to convince the mercenaries that she would not be able to perform the job, arguably validating Marianne's belief that the animal sacrifices would result in bad karma.
  • Anita confronts, outmaneuvers, or defeats Belle Morte several times. First, she and Jean-Claude take Asher to their (cerulean) bed in a ménage à trois, making Asher their lover and therefore immune to most of Belle's advances. Second, Anita, with help from Richard, Jean-Claude, and her wereleopards, is able to block Belle's attempts to make Anita her human servant. Third, Anita is ultimately able to trap Musette in their game of courtly politics, proving that Belle and her proxy Musette have violated the terms of her invitation and forcing Musette and her people to leave.
  • More alarmingly, Anita begins to believe that Belle Morte is planning a war against the Mother of All Darkness, the oldest and most powerful of the world's vampires. Although Anita and Jean-Claude do their best to avoid that conflict, the Mother of All Darkness is beginning to awaken from a centuries-long sleep, and seems interested in Anita.
  • Finally, Anita helps Zerbrowski track down the shapeshifting serial killer, who turns out to be a werewolf member of the mercenary team sent to observe Anita herself. After a confrontation in which several police officers are killed, Anita tracks down the werewolf a second time and executes him.
• In the epilogue, Anita explains that she is continuing to date Micah and Jean-Claude, and that she has also added Asher to her list of lovers. She and Richard are still broken up, but Richard appears to be overcoming his death wish. Two of Belle Morte's vampires have received permission to remain in St. Louis, both to repair the damage done by their visit and to attempt to stay out of the way of any conflict between Belle and the Mother of All Darkness.

Characters

Major characters

Cerulean Sins features the following major characters.

• Anita Blake. Anita has gained Federal Marshal status in this novel and uses it a few times to get into the preternatural crime scenes. She also mentions that she is now a partner in Animators, Inc. and consequently Bert is no longer her exact boss anymore. In the realm of her lovers, she wonders if she has been too restricting on them with her rules, if she is being fair to the her.

• Jean-Claude has gained a new power by an unknown means and is now the same status as Belle Morte, a sourdre de sang.
• Richard Zeeman cut off his hair which Anita says is a psychological tell that he was not a happy camper. Later he tells Anita that he had wanted to die, but now he wants to live. He and Anita do not make up or grow any closer in this novel.

• Asher: Asher and Jean-Claude come to a resolved point in their relationship until Anita cannot handle being rolled by Asher in bed. Asher nearly leaves and would have put a strain on Jean-Claude and Anita's relationship, but in the end stays. Anita says at the end, she has dated two men at the same time before, but not during the same date before.

• Zerbrowski: With Dolph being suspended with pay after an emotional break through about monsters, Zerbrowski took the lead throughout the murder investigations. He gained sergeant status in this book and still managed to tease Anita rather repeatedly, while releasing the stress of the horrific murders.

Other characters

Recurring characters include:

• Damian: While mentioned when Musette first came to St. Louis, Damian did not play a major part in this book. His calming affect on Anita was noted, because a servant can only give to the master what they have to offer and Damian had learned to restrain his emotions.

• Micah and Nathaniel play minor roles in this book, mostly to assist Anita or hinder, in that order. Nathaniel had taken on the role of Anita's ardeur feeder however, he needed more of a rest time in between feedings. In this book Anita starts to wonder what will happen to Nathaniel once she no longer needs him to feed the ardeur. She seems to be very comfortable with her role as another housemate and bedmate to these two characters and yet uncertain how long it will last or if it should.

• Jason Schuyler. Jason in this novel, finally "gets to take one for the team" which is a change for him since Anita usually doesn't treat him as a sexual being, despite his teasings.

• Dolph Storr. Dolph's issues with monsters and his son in love with a vampire member of the Church of Eternal Life, reaches a breaking point. He admits on camera that he thinks Jason should be locked up simply for being a werewolf, that he's dangerous supposedly. Dolph had reached lieutenant status in the force, but after tearing up a suspect interrogation room at the police station in a rage, his career was questionable.

Non-recurring characters include: Two werewolves that were used to track the rapist who was an alpha werewolf from a different country.

Death toll

• A murdered man running from Heinrick, killed as a message for others trying to hide. Disguised as a ritual murder.
• Four women brutally slaughtered in three different crime scenes, reduced to handfuls of meat and body parts and blood all over the place.
• Roy Van Anders, a werewolf rapist who killed the women, executed by Anita.
• Two tactical officers, Bates and Meyer, killed by Van Anders while trying to arrest him.