URBAN FANTASY REVIEW: Skin Trade (Anita Blake 17) - Laurell K Hamilton

BOOK BLURB:

Anita Blake’s reputation has taken some hits. Not on the work front, where she has the highest kill count of all the legal vampire executioners in the country, but on the personal front. No one seems to trust a woman who sleeps with the monsters. Still, when a vampire serial killer sends her a head from Las Vegas, Anita has to warn Sin City’s local authorities what they’re dealing with. Only it’s worse than she thought. Several officers and one executioner have been slain – paranormal style...

Anita heads to Las Vegas, where she’s joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward hiding behind his mild-mannered persona. It’s a good thing Edward always has her back, because, when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses “tiger” too strongly to ignore it. The were-tigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher...


REVIEW:

As many who have read Falcata Times before can attest to, I’ve not been the biggest fan of Laurell’s writing in the more recent Anita Blake novels primarily as she changed the character of Anita from the first few books from a pure heroine to a character who spent most of the book flat on her back doing little else. Making her books more about the sex rather than about the character and a descent plot to which most readers originally fell in love with.

In this offering, book 17 of the Anita Blake series, Laurell seems to go back more to what made the series a must own with a full plot driven devices over the sexploits. It is refreshing and it is more of what I wanted within the novel. Yes, there is sex and yes, there is some questionability of one of the acts (which thankfully we’re not witness too) that will make a number of readers shout with anger. Its well written, its back more to the original form, and brings a surprise of two. Whether you’re a fan of the series of not its perhaps not the best book to start with but if your up to date and an initiate in the LKH cult then this will be a must purchase and perhaps the first showing that she’s going back to what made the character so fascinating in book one.