The fifth installment in the Anita Blake series is brutal and dark. The book, first published by Penguin Publishing Group in 1996 and Penguin Audio in 2010, is available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as at your local library and through the Libby App. The audiobook, read by Kimberly Alexis, is fantastic, as she’s Anita personified, and the audio effects add an extra layer to the listening experience, truly drawing the listener into the perilous world Hamilton created.

This book follows Anita Blake as she works on a gruesome case in Branson, Missouri. Brutally slain young boys, a teenage girl left for dead, and a young boy is kidnapped, probably by a deviant sexual predator vampire who uses children as prey. The grief and pain infused within the storyline are genuine as family members impatiently wait for news of their children. Furthermore, Anita and Larry, her apprentice, must raise an entire graveyard of over two-hundred-year-old dead to settle a land dispute. In the midst of this dispute stands a fey with magical powers when he shouldn’t have. Is he an ally or a foe? All she knows for sure is that he’s messing up her latest assignment.

A new twist: Hamilton shows her readers and listeners Anita’s weakness for asking for help when she must call Jean-Claude to rescue, and she finds herself up to her neck in vampire politics and protocols, on top of zombie raisings, search-and-rescue operations, and more. Plus, Hamilton introduces a new master vampire who uses Anita’s past with heartbreaking accuracy. The manipulation of loss, grief, and yearning for a different outcome is a thread pulled with great care.

The fast-moving plots, the blurred ‘monster’ lines for Anita, and the ramped-up sexual tension, along with new tidbits and revelations about the main characters, are things Hamilton excels at. With so many storylines going in every direction, she keeps her audience on the path in the heat of the action where it belongs. It’s zombie mayhem, Anita fending off Jean-Claude’s flirtations and dealing with a master vampire tricking her mind beyond her capability to fight when the master offers is something Anita desperately wishes for. Hamilton’s knocked this one out of the park with its emotional depth, a 4-star read or listen.