Obsidian Butterfly (2000)

Synopsis: 'Anita killed one of Edward’s backups – which means she owes him a favour and he has finally called to collect. Or his alter ego has – reassuring Anita that what he wants in New Mexico is nice and legal. And a holiday away from her love life is probably not a bad idea.
Little did she imagine she’d be plunged into Edwards and that the cold, lethal assassin has a fiancée and she has 2 children – all of which have no idea about the man she’s going to marry.
And while the job may be legal – it’s brutal. Dozens of people have been killed or mutilated – and the deaths are some of the worst Anita has ever seen. Worse, it’s been done in a way neither she nor Edward’s erstwhile and experienced back up have ever seen.
Anita has to find and stop the murderer even as the death toll rises. That means facing Aztec gods, a fellow necromancer, ancient vampires and a prejudiced police force – even before she gets to the monster itself, which can feel her looking for it, and is watching her.'
Review: Edward's back-up, Ottis, is creepy! I was rooting for Anita to kill him. This book also opens the door for Obsidian Butterfly to re-appear, or at least her powers, at some future time. ( )

In this installment, Anita gets a surprise call from Edward, her assassin BFF to whom she owes a favor. He needs her help with a murder investigation in New Mexico. Sounds like fun! Except that Edward is keeping more secrets than usual from her. It turns out, he's engage to a mother of two. Horrified that Edward, a cold blooded killer, is intending to join himself to a completely innocent and unsuspecting family Anita is immediately on the defensive. Things only get more complicated as Edward begins to catch her up on his investigation - a serial killer that has been skinning dozens of people alive.

It seems like the ritual is related to ancient Aztec rituals. Luckily, the local master of the city is herself an Aztec and she is willing to meet with Anita. It's possible, just possible, that a truly ancient evil has awakened in the deserts of New Mexico. A true immortal with a taste for Necromancers. Anita will be lucky if she can even find the thing, much less come up with a way to kill it.

Blugh, this book is pretty bad. It's about twice as long as it should be and feels extremely padded out. The number of times the author will just grind the plot to a halt so that she can orchestrate an incredibly tedious and repetitive conversation between her characters is truly staggering. The climax of the novel is literally just Anita asking as many pointless questions as she can think of to a wannabe god so that she can stall long enough for the police to arrive. It's pretty much the opposite of exciting. And since when does Anita wait to be save by the police of all people?

To make matters worse, all the characters we've come to know and love from the series are absent. The only one knocking around in this book is Edward, and he's pretty dry most of the time. So of course, Ms. Hamilton has to spend tons of time introducing an entire rugby team of new characters, mostly male, and all whose appearance, mannerisms, and wardrobe have to be spelled out in great detail. It gets old fast. Thematically, the book is pretty pointless too as Anita's entire character arch in this novel is just her hemming and hawing over whether she wants to return to her two boyfriends or try dating a normie. It really seems to erase several books worth of character and relationship development. Besides, it's annoying because it's extremely clear what decision she will eventually make. ( )

I really loved Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series books but I did feel like she lost the thread a bit in the middle of the series. I am glad to say that it seems like she is focusing more on the story line and less on the sex of late which makes the books better in my opinion. I think Anita is a great character and Laurell K. Hamilton can write a great plot but her overly complicated sex scenes can somewhat take away from the book. ( )

I think this may be the best book in the series so far, with some caveats. The book has a lot of things in it that could trigger people. Children in danger to name just one. So choose to read this with care.

This book has a lot more horror elements than previous books.

This book features Edward, so you get to know more about him and his relationship with Anita. I thought it started slow. It could have used some editing to tighten things up a bit. I thought it was a bit repetitious about Edward and how Anita sees him.

But once things got going, I found it to be a real page turner. Horror, supernatural creatures, Aztec mythology, and black ops. Something for everyone. ( )

This was definitely not my favorite Anita Blake mostly because we see nothing of Richard or the weres and almost nothing of Jean Claude. ( )