Burnt Offerings

Anita Blake began raising zombies and killing vampires several novels ago. Now she's the lover of a French vampire who is the king of all neck-biters in St. Louis, and she's involved with the top dog of the city's werewolf population. These relationships involve fighting other vampires on behalf of her lovers. Narrator Kimberly Alexis, who performed the previous Anita Blake novels, now "owns" the voices. Alexis has Blake's tough sexuality down, and she also does a mean assortment of werewolves, were-rats, were-leopards, and vampires from different lands. She makes shifting from male to female, human to monster sound simple and natural. Listening is a pleasure. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

May 1, 2010
This seventh entry in Hamilton's (www.laurellkhamilton.org) No. 1 "New York Times" best-selling "Vampire Hunter" series was first published in 1998 and introduces several of the series' future critical characters. Here, Anita chooses the vampire over the werewolfto great consequence. Actress Kimberly Alexis (of "Gilmore Girls" fame) balances Anita's emotional seesaw with a voice husky with the hot anger that typifies Anita at this stage. She also effectively conveys the emotional landscape of the other characters: the fine line of love and hatred, the desire to be safe at any cost, and the price of leadership. The French accents are a bit heavy, but Alexis, who also reads the latest books in this series, has begun to wear the characters like a second skin. This title is a welcome addition to the audio Anitaverse, as are "Bloody Bones" (Bk. 5) and "Killing Dance" (Bk. 6), released simultaneously by Penguin on audio and also narrated by Alexis.Jodi L. Israel, MLS, Salt Lake City

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