Skin Trade -- A review of an Anita Blake Novel

Beware! Spoilers!

Skin Trade is the newest Laurrel K Hamilton novel in the Anita Blake series. Vampire serial killer Vittorio returns, laying a trap for Anita by luring her to Vegas--his newest crime scene. All the big names are called to wrangle in the unruly mass murderer whose body count now includes local cops. Edward and Olaf as well as Bernardo help Anita who is on her own from her St. Louis camp, much to the disappointment of Jean Claude, and a refreshing change from his oppressive tediousness.

The story starts out remeniscent of Obsidian Butterfly, especially with the interactions with Edward, who we are starting to see in a more human light. While it's a little different, it's a welcome change. Hints of Edward's hunter side bleed through in moments of curiosity, but his "love", if you can call a cold blooded killer capable of such, for Anita becomes a strong anchor she desperately needs. And Edward seems welcome to give it. Perhaps being a married man with children, even though it's a facade to his family, has changed him for the better.

Olaf also becomes an interesting spice in the bloody burrito that is Skin Trade. It seems Anita is capable of taming even the most feral of beasts, Olaf, a human serial killer whose victim profile is too much like Anita to be comfortable for anyone involved. Olaf makes a concerted effort to bridge a gap between his serial killer pin-up, Anita the Executioner, to win her over. At moments it provides much needed comedic relief, in others, it delivers a serious and well doneick-punch to the gut.

Most interesting in Skin Trade is the evolution of practioners in urban SWAT teams, and Anita's thoughts pinging on the idea of retirement or changing careers. It becomes an undulating conflict that ebbs and flows, but something I can see becoming a bigger issue down the road. Especially since she has said aloud, as well as in her thoughts, she's tired of being held prisoner by the ardeur. Thank you, because we're tired of it too. I was very happy to see more story and character development in this book--something that has been lacking over the last 6 books in the series.

The story flowed well with intense interactions and the gritty unapologetic and realistic crime scenes, but what I found clunky and constricting was LKH's, or perhaps Anita's, constant over-acting to prove herself to a bunch of men. Working in a male dominated field myself, I know how dismissed females can be, however, we have evolved significantly in this world--and with the series. If Anita's reputation precedes herself as much as it is portrayed (for the good and the bad), I don't feel 100 pages need to be dedicated to her constantly showing she can run with the boys.

The ending, I felt, was very poignant, only it was overshadowed with too much of the ardeur returning, and it became anticlimactic. It felt rushed when there was so much more that could have been done to end it with the usual Edward and Anita bang from the earlier books. But I felt like LKH wanted to skip over it all (battles with the Jinn, more magic use from Rocco and Anita, etc., the raid on the rogue witch's house) to get to the sick fantasies of a vampire and of course, more sex scenes.

I felt cheated and it dragged down the importance of what the SWAT relationships meant, the strengthening of the tiger clans that were involved, , Anita's "level up", the meaning behind Max and Bibiana's survival and what it meant for another Master's human servant to do save them (since Vampire politics are so huge in this series) and, the biggest bang of them all with the alleged death of what all vampires feared--The Mother of Darkness. I think that in itself would have been a nice book in the series that would allow LKH to clean house with all of Anita's baggage. And, give Edward a chance to feel as dangerous as he doubts himself to be anymore--especially since it came up as a turning point in the book.

Needless to say I was disappointed in the ending, many questions were left unanswered and it ended without tying up loose ends (something also quintessential, strangely, for this series).

And I still don't know why the book was called Skin Trade. Unless it had to do with the holy water scars of the afflicted vampires, or maybe how Vittorio could hide his identity as the Father of Day.

Skin Trade started out with so much promise, but failed miserably.