Anita Blake’s Vampire Hunter series continues strong with book four, in which Hamilton introduces a love triangle. This harrowing tale, first published by the Penguin Publishing Group in 1996 and made accessible in audio format by Penguin Audio in 2009, 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 tremendous as she beautifully personifies Anita, and the added audio effects immerse the listener, making this a great way to delve into this perilous adventure.

Gone are Anita’s “I don’t date monsters, I kill them” days, because her tune has changed quite a bit. Anita can admit she likes and loves Richard, tolerates Jean-Claude, and only agreed to his dating charade to ensure Richard’s safety. The trio is odd, Jean-Claude making demands of Anita so their relationship can be equal to hers and Richard’s. Her attitude is priceless.

I crossed my arms on my stomach. A psychologist would have said I was closed off, uncommunicative. Fuck them.

Of course, an Anita Blake novel wouldn’t be such without the elements of danger, mystery, crime, and gore. In comes the promised adventure as Anita tries to solve a case with the preternatural team on the police force after several shapeshifters have gone missing. Edward, a fearsome personage in this series, returns. He’s a heartless mercenary with a dark humor to match Anita’s.

“Following you around lets me kill a lot of people.”

While on the case of the missing shapeshifters, Anita uncovers that within the pack, some wolves are making ‘snuff films’. When she shares this information with Richard, his reaction is, well, let’s say, less than human, and yet Anita isn’t scared off. No, she falls deeper in love with him and even agrees to marry him. The relationship drama is laid on pretty thick in this novel, with the struggle of will I or won’t I, and the sexual tension. Anita’s and Richard’s principles being at odds, Anita and Jean-Claude butting heads. On a brighter note, while searching for the missing shifters, Hamilton introduces new mythological creatures, including an immortal snake god.

The conflicting feelings about her two sexy men, the vulnerability beneath the tough as nails exterior and Anita’s big mouth that gets her in trouble more often than not and her band of supernatural friends and foes as well as the humans in her circle are all brought to the forefront by Hamilton’s vivid descriptions with a voice that brings frightening chills down readers and listeners spines making this a 3.5 star read or listen.