SKIN TRADE (ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER #17)

SKIN TRADE by LAURELL K HAMILTON.

SOURCE: Ex-library stock. I was given this by a friend who wanted to know what I thought of it.

INNER FRONT COVER BLURB: I'd worked my share of serial killer cases, but none of the killers had ever mailed me a human head. That was new.

My name is Anita Blake and my reputation has taken some hits. Not on the work front, where I have the highest kill count of all the legal vampire executioners in the country, but on the personal front. No one seems to trust a woman who sleeps with the monsters. Still, when a vampire serial killer sends me a head from Las Vegas, I know I have to warn Sin City's local authorities what they're dealing with.

Only it's worse than I thought: several police officers and an executioner have been slain paranormal style. When I get to Las Vegas I'm joined by three other federal marshals. Which is a good thing because I need all the backup I can get when hunting a killer this powerful and dangerous.

FIRST SENTENCE {Chapter 1}: I'd worked my share of serial killer cases, but none of the killers had ever mailed me a human head.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 64/65}: I had that feeling of falling down the rabbit hole, except there'd never been serial killers in Alice in Wonderland, though I guess you could make a case for the Queen of Hearts. Off with their heads!

MY THOUGHTS: Having periodically and randomly dipped in and out of this series (if my memory serves me correctly the last one I read was #8, Blue Moon) I'm not too sure I'm best informed as to the series as a whole but to comment on this particular book ...

Probably best read in sequence but, my interest piqued by 'but none of the killers had ever mailed me a human head', I knew that I simply had to read this and try not to let my lack of background knowledge re previous events/characters influence my rating of it too much. 

Possibly a case of my being unduly irritated by it but liking my heroines (especially supernatural ones) feisty I really disliked how the author constantly had Anita whine about her not being taken seriously by men whilst at the same time had her refer to herself not as a woman but a girl. 

Then ....

Perhaps in search of something to write about other than your average shape-shifters/vampires etc there were all these confusing 'cross-breeds'. Anita herself being a living vampire come succubus (though one that can feed without intercourse) with a number of different were-animal (tigers and a leopard as well as a wolf included) in her DNA.

And then ....

Disappointed by the lack of description when it came down to characters - its all very well to know the colour of their eyes etc but it did nothing in the way of helping me understand them or their motives - and yet frustrated by the unnecessary  over-describing of weaponry and wounds etc, there just didn't seem to be any middle ground.

But most of all ....

Bored by the constant (if thankfully generally not too graphic) suggestion of sex with multiple partners. Perhaps Ms Hamilton's way of showing us what an liberated empowered woman (sorry, girl) Anita was but it only made for uncomfortable reading given that far from seeming happy about it it felt like Anita was almost compelled to have sex with all these men. 

Maybe tired of the whole supernatural genre. Maybe because I haven't read the series from the beginning and in order (the friend who gave me the book did warn it wasn't one for newbies). Either way I have no desire to read any of the further escapades (whether past or present) of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter.