With reportedly six million copies of her “Anita Blake” books in print, Micah, the 13th volume and first mass-market original in Laurell K. Hamilton’s vampire series since 1998, went straight to #1 in the US with a first printing of more than 400,000 copies. The next volume in the series, Danse Macabre, returned to the hardcover format as Anita thought she might be pregnant. It also went to #1 with a 250,000-copy first printing that quickly sold out.
Set in third century Rome, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s 19th century historical novel about vampire Ragoczy Germain Sanctus-Franciscus was entitled Roman Dusk.
Proven Guilty was the eighth volume in Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” and involved wizard PI Harry Dresden in a war between the Faeries and the vampires of the Red Court.
TV director Tony Foster had to halt a Demonic Convergence with the help of his friend, vampire Henry Fitzroy, in Tanya Huff’s Smoke and Ashes, the third in the humorous dark fantasy series. Meanwhile, Huff’s earlier “Vicki Nelson” books were repackaged by DAW Books as a three-volume series, The Blood Books, each containing two novels apiece.
No Dominion was the second volume in Charlie Huston’s series about hardboiled vampire PI Joe Pitt. A private investigator who was half-human, half-elf had a vampire as her first client in Even Vampires Get the Blues by Katie MacAlister (aka Katie Maxwell), and a series of murders in a small town were blamed on vampires in Pale Immortal by Anne Frasier.
Navajo Nightwalker police officer Lee Nez returned in David Thurlo and Aimee Thurlo’s Surrogate Evil, the fourth volume in the vampire mystery series.
B. H. Fingerman’s Bottomfeeder was about a loser vampire in a dead-end job, and a man was recruited to hunt vampires in Graham Masterton’s Descendant.
Barbara Hambly’s Renfield: Slave of Dracula retold the story of the Count’s fly-eating servant.
Whereas once vampires were used as figures of fear in literature, they are now more likely to be depicted as humorous characters or, even worse, potential romantic partners in numerous paperback originals (“vampromcoms”?) apparently aimed at middle-class housewives and undiscerning supermarket shoppers.
Reminiscent of the boom-and-bust horror cycle of the 1980s, vampire romances and – even more bizarrely – vampire/werewolf romances swamped the market in 2006. Not only were these volumes mostly aimed at people who read outside the horror genre, but the majority were written by authors (often under multiple pseudonyms) who had no other interest in horror. However, there was no denying that there was a huge audience for these types of books.
Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse had to recover a bracelet belonging to the vampire Queen of Louisiana in Definitely Dead, the sixth in the humorous Southern Gothic series by Charlaine Harris.
An undead woman opened a vampire dating agency in Manhattan in Kimberly Raye’s Dead End Dating, while Undead and Unpopular was the fifth book in Maryjanice Davidson’s humorous “Betsy the Vampire Queen” series.
The Damned was the latest volume in the “Vampire Huntress Legends” series by L. A. Banks (Leslie Esdale Banks) and included a limited edition poster inside the back cover of the hardback edition. Banks also edited Vegas Bites, an anthology of four stories by J. M. Jeffries, Seressia Glass, Natalie Dunbar and the editor, set in a casino run by vampires, werewolves and other creatures.
An undead casino owner became involved in politics in Erin McCarthy’s High Stakes, the latest volume in the humorous “Vegas Vampires” series, while a female security guard at a Las Vegas concert encountered her former vampire boyfriend in Cameron Dean’s Passionate Thirst, the first book in the “Candace Steele Vampire Killer” series. It was followed by Luscious Craving and Eternal Hunger.
In Kerrelyn Sparks’ Vamps and the City, two CIA vampire hunters became involved in a reality TV show, and a female FBI agent had a vampire lover in Caridad Piniero’s Death Calls.
Mario Acevedo’s comedy debut novel, The Nymphos of Rocky Flats introduced Latino vampire investigator Felix Gomez, while Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta involved a Latina finding love amongst a family of bloodsuckers.
Traitor to the Blood was the fourth volume in Barb Hendee and J. C. Hendee’s “Noble Dead” series, while both Desire Calls and Death Calls by Caridad Piñeiro featured women involved with vampires.
In Touch the Dark, the first in a new series by newcomer Karen Chance, necroscope Cassie Palmer was forced to rely on the protection of a dangerously seductive master vampire.
A bounty hunter became involved with vampires in Hunting the Hunter, the first in a series by Shiloh Walker, and after being left for dead, bounty hunter Anna Strong tracked down the vampires that transformed her in The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein.
Blood Ties Book One: The Turning was the first in a new series by Jennifer Armintrout about a vampire doctor.
A woman discovered that she had a new destiny in Alexandra Ivy’s vampire romance When Darkness Comes, the first book in the “Guardians of Eternity” trilogy, and a succubus worked as an exotic dancer in Jackie Kessler’s Hell’s Belles, the first in another trilogy.
Lover Eternal and Lover Awakened were the first two volumes in the “Black Dagger Brotherhood” vampire romance series by J. R. Ward (Jessica Bird).
A biochemist pursued by the undead was helped by a vampire hunter in Seduced by the Night, the second book in the “Night Slayer” series by Robin T. Popp, while Past Redemption by Savannah Russe (Charles Trantino) was the second book in “The Dark-wing Chronicles”.
The Devil’s Knight and Dark Angel were the second and third volumes, respectively, in the “Bound in Darkness” Medieval vampire romance series by Lucy Blue (Jayel Wylie).
Nora Roberts’ Dance of the Gods and Valley of Silence were the second and third books in the author’s vampire “Circle” trilogy, and I Only Have Fangs for You by Kathy Love was the third in the series about vampire brothers.
Prince of Twilight was the latest title in the “Wings in the Night” series by Maggie Shayne, and Dark Demon and Dark Celebration were the next two novels in the “Carpathian” series by Christine Feehan, whose Conspiracy Game was the fourth in the “GhostWalkers” series.
Tall Dark & Dead was a humorous novel by Tate Hallaway (Lyda Morehouse) which involved a witch attracted to a vampire alchemist. Kathryn Smith’s Be Mine Tonight combined vampires with the legend of the Holy Grail, while The Vampire’s Seduction by Raven Hart featured a playboy bloodsucker confronting an ancient enemy.
A female PI discovered that her former fiancé had become a vampire and was accused of murder in Jenna Black’s Watchers in the Night. Stolen computer files were at the heart of Susan Sizemore’s vampire romance Master of Darkness, and a bloodsucker fell in love with a police officer in the same author’s Primal Heat.