Sunday, November 15, 2009

Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita Blake is a Federal Marshal of the Supernatural Squad, and in her off-time, works for ReAnimators, Inc. But even with all the freaky things she's seen so far, she's never gotten mailed a decapitated head before.

The head is a present from a vampire named Vittorio, a vampire serial killer. Anita had tracked him, but he'd gotten away and fled. Now, Vittorio is in Las Vegas, and issuing a challenge to Anita to come, find him, and take care of him. But Anita's rep isn't all that good any longer- now that most of her allies know she's shacking up with the Supernaturals she should be policing, not many people want to work with her, afraid that she's gone soft or is selling out to "other side". But regardless, she has to do her job as a Federal Marshal and track down Vittorio.

But she knows Jean-Claude will argue with her over it, so she leaves during the day, while he is still asleep, and this will later cause tension between them. She also calls Edward, the former assassin, who is also a Federal Marshal, to help cover her back. But he's already been called in, along with two other marshals, and he tells her that he will meet her in Vegas, since he's likely to get there first.

Anita arrives, but Edward is nowhere to be seen, and the Local Undersheriff and the SWAT squad seem more interested in a "Whose got the biggest package" contest, because they think Anita can't hack it, being petite, pretty, and, of course, female. But she's much, much tougher than she looks, and even though many of them look down on her for shacking up with the monsters, eventually, they come to some sort of understanding, and she's taken to the main police building. Where, because of the great number of weapons she is carrying, she is treated as a possible suspect and interrogated- all because of her "connection" with the crime.

Anita knows this is crap, but holds tough through the questioning, and is finally released so she can meet the other marshals and get to the crime scene, where she is now several hours overdue. She finally meets Edward, and the two other Marshals, a native American named Bernardo Spotted Horse, and another Marshal that Anita is familliar with and wishes she wasn't a serial killer named Olaf. Anita's worked with Olaf before, and he creeps her out. She suspects that he wants her because of her physical similarity to his victims, and that he's seen her fear.

But she also has a job to do here, figuring out what exactly killed the cops that tried to take down Vittorio in Las Vegas. Several of the wounds say "Wereanimal" and "Weretiger" is high on the list, given that the Master of Las Vegas, Maximillian' s wife, Bibiana, is the head of a group of Weretigers. Two of his sons also share the weretiger gene.. But when Anita goes to see them about the killings, Marmee Noir does something to her shields, leaving her dangerously vulnerable to the Weretiger's influence, and Bibiana is almost able to use it to control Anita..

Even though she's fixated on finding Vittorio and the vampires and the creature who slaughtered the cops, Marmee Noir's influence over her is very strong, leading to Anita becoming Queen over several different colors of Weretiger, including the legendary Blue Tigers, through Bibiana's son, who is only 21. Marmee Noir wants Anita's body for her own. Failing that, she wants a baby of Anita's body to be hers, a baby from a weretiger mating. And with her defenses down, Anita has no way of resisting a weretiger orgy.

Worse, Vittorio is obsessed with Anita for a reason. Like Anita's lover Asher, he was tortured with Holy Water, so badly that he can no longer function sexually. And with Anita subject to the Ardeur, he wants to experience fulfillment and release. But can Anita give it to him? As Anita discovers that Vittorio has a longtime connection to Marmee Noir, she must deal with the demands of her ardeur, demands that are making her more and more convinced that she cannot do her job any longer. Anita is also a vampire, a psychic vampire, and luckily, the government has no conception of what she can do, so it doesn't legislate against her. But can Anita stand the strain of feeling she has become a monster, when only the monsters accept her? Only time can tell as this book counts down to the finish.

Wow. Just... wow. I really liked this book, which concentrated on the effects that Anita is feeling from her decisions to love the kind of people that others see as "monsters", vampires and wereanimals. And people can be very cruel to those who buck the established trends, whether because they are afraid that women will find the Monsters better in bed (as one character suggests) or just because they think it will make Anita soft, she's suffering the fallout.

But in a way, the other characters are right. Anita is already struggling with the consequences of what she does as a Marshal. She's close to suffering complete burnout, and whether it's as a result of who and what she sleeps with, or the fact that she's been at her job for too long, something has got to give. At this point, we can only hope that what gives isn't Anita. But she knows something isn't right, and she has a lot of scary issues to deal with- her increasing number of lovers, thanks to the Ardeur, is very scary to her, and not something she's proud of. She has to make some hard choices, and its getting to the point where the implication of the choices she makes is slowing her down.

But not everyone hates her. Sometimes, the other humans out there are just as confused as she is. Another psychic in SWAT, nicknamed "Cannibal" by his fellow SWAT guys, asks Anita how to prevent himself from becoming a monster, and what the definition of being a good guy is. Anita's answer is that a good guy knows he could use his powers to do bad things to people, and is even tempted to- but doesn't because the person knows they are wrong. That's quite a change from what Anita might have said earlier in the series.

It's also nice that this book heralds a change to the "Less about sex, more about paranormal mystery and horror" type book. No sex for about 3/4 of the book, and then Anita has to feed her ardeur, but when Marmee Noir forces her to try and have a baby by initiating an orgy between Anita and several flavors of Tiger, Anita doesn't even realize what's happened until she wakes up afterwards... and one of the participants was only 16, something that squicks Anita deeply.

My only real complaint is that the ending of the story with Vittorio was over so quickly. After hundreds of pages seeking him, the ending confrontation is only about 30... and that is Anti-Climactic. On the other hand, Anita does discover how to perhaps Heal Asher of his holy water burns, but nothing seems really resolved about Anita's burnout and dissatisfaction with her job. I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one.

In short, this book marks a return to the earlier Anita books in terms of story, with less sex overall and more of a horror/Mystery vibe. While Sex is not completely eliminated, we get to see the strain it's putting on all her relationships (even Jean-Claude seems to be tired of it- but wouldn't he know what the Ardeur is like, being subject to it himself?) It's not a perfect book- the ending is rushed, and we rehash what is already known about Anita, but I would recommend this to a friend still.

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