Book: Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter

[Yukimura]

Micah is really Anita Blake book 13 but for some reason it wasn't marketed as such. It could be because it's not much of a novel and is more like a side story novella that sheds some light on Anita's relationship with the titular character without advancing the main story all that much. Death of a Darklord has nothing to do with the Anita Blake series and is one of LKH's previous works.

The proper order of Anita Blake Series Books is:
Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
Circus of the Damned
The Lunatic Café
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly <<<--- My personal favorite
Narcissus in Chains <<<---Turning point of the series
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams <<<--- LHK: "Shark, this is me jumping you"
Micah
Danse Macabre
The Harelequin
Blood Noir (out May 27th 2008)

Personal Reflections
While I have read all the books and have no intention of not reading new books in the series the author has killed much of my respect for her and her abilities as a story teller with the more recent books in this series. For the first half of the series the central theme of each book is a problem that the main character must solve and details abound about her personal experiences and issues she deals with as she goes about trying to solve the problem. I should also add that she's generally out of her league during this time

However, Starting with Narcissus in Chains the main characters personal issues begin to eclipse the actual problems the plot poses in terms of importance and story focus. With this the novels turn from suspenseful mysteries with dark themes and sensual undertones into darkly themed romances with sexual overtones and a mystery/antagonist tossed in just to give the characters a reason to interact.

If you aren't attached to the characters by the time you get to this point I think it would be hard to keep going with the series.