Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton

5 out of 5 Big Golden Stars from me!
My Review:
Alright, this book was totally worth sticking around for and made me super glad I never stopped reading the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter books. (This is #17!!!) I absolutely loved reading "Skin Trade!"

In a previous novel Anita was to kill Vittorio, a bad vampire. Although everyone believes him to be gone, Anita has her own doubts regarding his death. She is proven right in "Skin Trade" as he delivers her a lovely (freshly cut) human head to work. She can't refuse the invitation to Las Vegas now to track him down and slay him once and for all. There are lots of problems with her going to Las Vegas... She goes alone and no one takes her seriously because she is a woman and human servant to a Master of the City. In true Anita Blake fashion, she gives them all a bunch of shit right back and goes after her monster anyway.

Anyone who still loves to read this series will be happy to see that Edward, Olaf and Bernardo are back to help Anita. These are three marshals that Blake works with- I love all of them. You get a closer look at Olaf in this book and he changes his character up a little to try to suit Anita. I don't know why, but he is one of my favorite characters... I think I love the 3 Federal Marshals that work with Anita more than I like her men. Maybe I have a thing for fictional serial killers?

It really made me happy in that this story revolves more around the police investigation than everything else in Anita's life. It made it much harder to put the book down! Most all of Anita's personal life is put on the back burner- such as feeding the ardeur, her lovers... I mean, come on, she goes to Vegas ALONE! This hasn't happened in most of her recent novels. This book left out all of Anita's normal lovers such as Nathaniel, Micah, Jean-Claude... etc. It felt like one of the original Anita Blake books except that Anita's character is obviously more grown up. I have to say I really enjoyed the lack of all her lovers in the novel. (This seriously surprised me.) In this book you can finally see that Anita really is growing and accepting things the way they are. She is accepting that all her lovers don't make her a bad person. Her alone trip to Vegas is just what she needed as she is feeling overwhelmed with the fact that she doesn't get much (if any) alone time or privacy in her personal life. She also wasn't all whiny about her psychic abilities with the weretigers, etc... I hate when the heroine gets whiny, and lets face it, she has whined SO much about the ardeur in past novels!

This book left me on my toes. I can NOT wait until the next book comes out!

Book Details:

• Hardcover: 486 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; June 2, 2009
  
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425227723

Books in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series in order they should be read: Click Here & Scroll to the end of the Blog Post
Sorry this review was so short, but I have to go to work and wanted to get it done before I went in. =)