Skin Trade

April 20, 2009
Hamilton's 17th Anita Blake novel draws the vampire hunter into a game of cat-and-mouse with a particularly monstrous vampire named Vittorio. Aided by sadistic serial killer Otto Jefferies, convenient sociopath Edward and fanged escorts handpicked by her lover Jean-Claude, U.S. marshal Anita offers her services to Las Vegas, now under siege from Vittorio's army of enthralled preternatural beings. Manipulated by the cunning Vittorio and occasionally misled by coincidental events, Anita employs her insight into Vittorio's condition and weaponized libido as the decisive weapons in this struggle. The book is largely concerned with the melodramatic conflict between hunter and hunter and Blake's soap-operatic love life, but Hamilton does manage some genuinely moving passages, particularly those describing the terror of innocent vampires caught up in the arbitrary and draconian U.S. legal system.

Kimberly Alexis takes over the narration of this series with a tough, no-nonsense voicing of vampire hunter and Federal Marshal Anita Blake. Blake's latest adventure begins when she receives a decapitated head at her office. The only one who could have sent it is the vampire serial killer Vittorio. Alexis contrasts Blake's voice with the softer tones of the supernatural beings--vampires, were-tigers, and witches. She gives the older ones cultured voices that make them seem even more menacing. The result is a fantastic world made more believable through Alexis's matter-of-fact reading. Fans of the series, and those who enjoy erotic fiction and the supernatural, will enjoy this seventeenth installment. E.N. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine