Obsidian Butterfly, book nine in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, was first published in 2000 and is available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and audiobook formats, as well as your local library and through the Libby App. The audiobook, read by Kimberly Alexis, is highly recommended, as she fluently captures Anita’s personality, and the audio effects add depth to the listening experience, creating a sense of tension and danger.

Edward/Ted calls in his favor, and Anita meets him on his home turf of Santa Fe, NM, where she discovers he’s engaged to Donna, a widow with two children: Peter, fourteen, and Becca, six. Anita disapproves of Edward using this woman and her children as part of his cover story. However, she doesn’t have time to worry about his love life since a gruesome case waits. The horrific crime scenes littered with bodies violently torn apart limb by limb, with their entrails ripped out, even more ghastly than the crime scenes are the survivors, six of them skinned alive, with parts of their anatomy missing.

Anita isn’t the only one Edward’s called in for back up; two other men, Olaf Jefferies and Bernado Spotted-Horse, have been on the case with him for a few weeks. The men challenge Anita’s presence; the main detective on the case is a misogynistic cop to boot. Itzapapalotl, the master vampire of the city, is a self-professed Aztec Goddess; her priest and human servant, Pinolt, and her werejacquars put on questionable shows at her club, the Obsidian Butterfly. There’s also the local necromancer and vargamor to the local werewolf pack, Nicky Baco, whose ulfric used his power to punish his wolves most unusually, something Anita will have to undo before going back home, and there’s the Red Husband, a God awakened, and his minions torturing and causing mayhem to free him.

Needless to say, Hamilton jammed this book with entertaining action from start to finish, bringing readers on a dark, unimaginable ride of horrors where death isn’t always final. For fans of Edward a.k.a Death, a.k.a. Ted Forrester, this is a must-read book. The coldhearted, ruthless, and apparently soulless killer has facets never seen before. Anita uncovers parts of his past when they come into conflict with several mercenaries who work for his former boss Van Cleef, giving her clues into his previous life.

There are two remarkable scenes.

Anita remarks that she would rather Edward be charged with her death than Jean-Claude or Richard. Readers might find this revealing, considering she shares her body with the latter two, yet she won’t trust them with her death.

“Jean-Claude and even Richard would try to hold me alive out of love, or something that passed for it, even my family and other friends would fight to keep alive, if I wanted death, Edward would give it to me because we both understand that it isn’t death that we fear, it’s living.”

Edward provides a key moment in the book, defining his and Anita’s unique, non-romantic relationship and granting readers an exceptional insight into his personal feelings when he has a conversation with Olaf, telling him.

“I think if you find your other soul (half), you would be too much alike to be lovers, but would still be soul mates… She is like a piece of my soul, Olaf.”  

A refreshing aspect of this book was the absence of love-triangle drama. Readers got a tantalizing read that gave them chills without the hassle of ‘who will I choose?’ The pure journey into carnage, investigating a monster unlike any other before, getting to know Edward better, and Anita having to face some hard truths about herself are what keep readers turning the pages, making this a 4-star read.