The series takes place in a parallel fantasy world where vampires, shape shifters, werewolves, faeries, etc. exist. Her night job, and primary source of income, is the legal profession of re-animating the dead. As an "animator" in a parallel St. Louis, her job entails using magical abilities to bring temporary life to dead bodies in order to question them for legal purposes. These abilities allow her to control dead bodies and enable her to see souls. Her other profession is a vampire hunter/executioner. In her world this profession involves tracking down and killing vampires who have murdered humans. A strong protagonist in the series, Blake is very direct, rude, and yet highly competent in the professions she is involved in. She is trained in various martial arts and weapons, but is most efficient with a gun. She is also a devout christian which often creates moral dilemmas for the character. She is currently of the Episcopalian faith, having left Catholisism since the Catholic church has excommunicated all reanimators.

In discussing the genesis of the character, Hamilton has said:

"I started reading a lot of hardboiled detective fiction — Robert B. Parker in particular — and I read a lot of strong female protagonists. But there was one problem, a difference between the male and female protagonists of the different series — even the strongest of the women did not get to do some of the things the men got to do. The men got to cuss, the women rarely; the men got to kill people and not feel bad about it, if the women killed someone they had to feel really, really bad about it afterward and it had to be an extreme situation; the men got to have sex, often and on stage and very casually, but if the women had sex it had to be offstage, very sanitized. I thought this was unfair."

Book 1: Guilty Pleasures

Book 2: The Laughing Corpse

Book 3: Circus of the Damned

Book 4: The Lunatic Cafe

Book 5: Bloody Bones

Book 6: The Killing Dance

Book 7: Burnt Offerings

Book 8: Blue Moon

Book 9: Obsidian Butterfly

Book 10: Narcissus in Chains

Book 11: Cerulean Sins

Book 12: Incubus Dreams

Book 13: Micah

Book 14: Danse Macabre

Book 15: The Harlequin (Coming Soon at Kitabe.com)