Smack dab in the middle of the country, St. Louis is home to the Gateway Arch - an iconic representation of the city"s renown as the nexus point between East and West, and all those who would travel between the two halves of America. But in Laurell K. Hamilton"s world of bestselling novels, it hosts a thriving community of undead, all of whom live out in the open with full civil rights and the protection of the law. It"s also home to Anita Blake, a vampire hunter par excellence - an equalizer for humans when the vamps get out of line! But Anita"s day job is as an Animator, able to resurrect the dead in the form of the walking dead - zombies! It is this talent that"s suddenly made her very popular: First, local fat cat and reputed mob boss Harold Gaynor requests her services to raise a particularly old body back to life. The starting price is a million dollars, but Anita later learns the price of saying "no" just might be her life!