Major characters
Bloody Bones features the following major characters.
- Anita Blake: In Bloody Bones , Anita further develops her role as Larry's mentor, and is forced to ask Jean-Claude for substantial help for the first time. She also relives the trauma of her mother's death. According to Hamilton's notes in the afterword, writing the novel was also traumatic for Hamilton herself, because it required Hamilton to reexperience her own mother's death, the event that served as a model for Anita's childhood experience).
- Jean-Claude: Jean-Claude's admission that the Vampire Council has divided his territory, together with his conflict with Serephina and Janos, further underscores the difficulty he is having as the newly installed Master of the City, a conflict that appear in several of the early novels. In addition, the appearance of vampires from Jean-Claude's past allows Anita to learn more about the circumstances that have made him into the vampire she knows.
- Richard Zeeman: Richard appears only in the beginning of the novel, when Anita visits to tell him that she's going out of town, and is mentioned in the epilogue.
Other characters
- Recurring characters in Bloody Bones include:
- Anita's co-workers Bert Vaughn and Larry Kirkland;
- police officer Dolph Storr; and
- Jean-Claude's pomme de sang Jason Schuyler.
- Non-recurring characters in Bloody Bones include:
- Raymond Stirling;
- Lionel Bayard;
- Ms Harrison;
- Mr and Mrs Quinlan, and their children Ellie and Jeff;
- Dorcas Bouvier;
- Sergeant Freemont;
- Beau;
- Lisa and her unnamed friend, two college girls who agree to visit Seraphina's lair;
- David St. John
- Officer Wallace , a police officer that accompanies Anita on her vampire hunt;
- Federal agents Elwood and Bradford (Although Bradford does appear in Obsidian Butterfly and at least one other subsequent novel.)
- The death toll in Bloody Bones includes:
- Three unnamed murdered teenaged boys, killed by Bloody Bones;
- A teenaged boyfriend and girlfriend, killed before the novel begins by Bloody Bones;
- Andy, presumably killed by Anita in an early firefight;
- Deputy Zack Coltrain nearly decapitated by a vampire in an early firefight;
- Officer Granger , killed by Anita to prevent him from shooting Larry.
- Beth St. John, killed by an unnamed brown haired female vampire.
- The brown haired female vampire herself, killed by Beth's husband, David St. John;
- Bruce, shot by Larry at Seraphina's house
- Lionel Bayard, shot by Stirling
- Ivy, killed by Anita in self-defense;
- Ms Harrison, was severely injured after Anita ordered a zombie to attack her, later drained by Ellie and Xavier
- Raymond Stirling, drained by Pallas and Bettina
- Rawhead and Bloody Bones, killed by Anita and Xavier;
- Ellie, turned into a vampire by Andy and killed when Magnus dragged her into sunlight;
- Magnus Bouvier, burned to death when Anita forced Ellie to hold onto his waist as he ran out into sunlight;
- Seraphina, Xavier, Janos, Pallas, Bettina, (presumably) Kissa, and Jeff Quinlan, burned when authorities set fire to the Bloody Bones.
