#1 New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton offers a sexy, suspenseful novel of human—and inhuman—passions, as vampire hunter Anita Blake must repay a favor to a man almost as dangerous as the ancient evil she’s about to face…Edward is a hit man, specializing in monsters, vampires, shapeshifters, anything and everything. There are people like Anita who do it legal, but Edward … it legal, but Edward doesn’t sweat the legalities, or, hell, the ethics. He’s an equal opportunity killer.
Anita may be one of the few friends that Edward has, but it’s like being friends with a tame leopard. It may curl up on the foot of your bed and let you pet its head, but it can still eat your throat out…
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I think this book is hands down the best of the Anita Blake series, so it’s surprising that it is totally separate from the carefully crafted setting in St. Louis with all of Anita’s friends, enemies, and romantic interests. In fact, the only person who has appeared before in this novel is Edward, the assassin who trained Anita to survive being a vampire hunter. Edward, who’s legal name in New Mexico is Ted Forester, is a cold-blooded sociopath who’s only pleasure in life comes from killing things. The tougher the kill the more he likes it. Or at least that’s what Anita always thought of Edward. Then she meets his flower-child fiancé and her two children and everything she thought she knew is overturned. The problem, she fears, is that she wasn’t wrong in her first assessment. Edward has gotten himself into a social problem he can’t extricate himself from and she’s worried it might end up killing these three innocents.
But that isn’t the problem that brought her to New Mexico. Someone—the feds think it’s a serial killer or two—is murdering people by chopping some of them up and skinning the others. The true horror comes from the fact that the skinned people are all still alive. They can’t talk, but they can move, and sometimes bite, and no one can figure out how this horror was inflicted upon them. This is a fate that is much worse than death and Hamilton does a wonderful job at showing how the possibility of ending like this is unsettling some of the hardest killers in the world. She also does a great job of unfolding the mystery, laying out the clues that show how Anita, with her peculiar background as an animator, can contribute to these major investigations despite tremendous hostility toward her as a woman, a civilian, and a “zombie queen”.
As if all of that wasn’t great enough, Hamilton introduces two more of Edward’s associates: a bounty hunter, and Olaf—a serial killer almost as disturbing as whatever is killing these people—and these two—especially Olaf—really ratchet up the tension as we come to realize that Anita fits this disturbing man’s victim profile.
Yet, even this isn’t enough, because Edward’s pacifist fiancé has gotten herself into some trouble of her own with a biker gang that threatens to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back in this adventure—and I haven’t even mentioned the super spooky master vampire whose name is also the title of the book. She a thousand years old and think she’s an Aztec goddess and she brings oodles of additional drama into an already extraordinary tale.
If you’ve ever read an Anita Blake novel and enjoyed it even the tiniest bit, you should make time to read this one. If you’ve never read one, I think you can come into this novel fresh. It does build on what’s happened earlier in the series, but because all of the action is outside of Anita’s usual stomping grounds, I think this one makes a good standalone book for anyone wondering what all the fuss is about.
Obsidian Butterfly is the ninth full-length novel in Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. This was not the first time I read this book, but it will be the first time I review it. I first read this book back in 2009 and found this book was not my favorite in the series. Now in 2020, I still have that same opinion but gave it a higher rating after rereading it. I’ll share my thoughts why below in my review.
Storyline: Anita has been called to New Mexico on the favor that she owes Edward due to killing one of his back-ups in a previous story. Edward, though, is going by Ted Forrester and has another life that Anita was not aware of because Edward does not come off as friendly and family-oriented. Anita is to help Edward by being fresh eyes on the cases that he has been working on with the police in his town. This case is nothing that Anita has ever encountered, and she is on her own on figuring it out without Jean-Claude or Richard to help her. This is due to Anita taking a hiatus from them both. Unfortunately, she will find out the villain(s) in this book are something from nightmares. This is the case that will test Anita not only physically but mentally. Anita will also have to deal with Edward’s other back-ups in this case. One who thinks he’s a sex-god to women and the other who despises women. Anita has her hands full in all areas in this book.
My Thoughts: This book is not my favorite in the series. (so far that I’ve read in the series because I am playing catch-up later on in the series.) First off, this book is over 600+ pages long, and a lot of the pages were going into so much detail that it was overloading at times. I do enjoy a long book, but sometimes the scenes went on too long. It took forever to figure out who or what was behind the craziness. The characters were not only having to find out who was behind the hideous killings, but they also were dealing with a gang of human guys, the Master Vampire of the City and her minions, and several other evil characters that I won’t give away. This book will give you nightmares about what was happening. I know I had trouble sleeping the first time I read this book. I did enjoy seeing Anita without the guys (Jean-Claude and Richard). She was trying to find herself and get a break from them, but she’s going to find out that she needs them more than ever in this book. There was also the issue of a particular character named Olaf that freaked me out. Edward put Anita in danger when he asked Olaf to help him with the case. Don’t get me wrong; there were things I enjoyed about this book. I loved that it had a villain that was not like any other villain that Anita has encountered. This one is Ancient. There was also action-packed scenes in the book. Laurell K. Hamilton does a fantastic job on those kinds of scenes. It also helps when you have a female heroine who kicks butt all the time.
Forewarning because this book has triggers to it that will make readers uncomfortable. Most of it comes towards the end of the book, where it involves children and violence. This was a very awkward chapter(s) for me. I don’t like reading about children getting hurt, and these scenes made me so mad. There were sexual assault and violence towards children. There was also mention of rape, but Anita fights back in the book, which is one of many reasons why I love her character.
Would I recommend this book? Yes. If you are a fan of the Anita Blake series and have read the previous books in the series, you will enjoy it. If you have not read the series before, then you need to start from the beginning. This is not a series where you start reading in the middle. You will miss out on a lot.
Laurell K. Hamilton brings a lot to this book with the action-packed and scary scenes. I may need some time to re-read the next book. I need a book with some HEA because this book was dark. I love this series, though, and I look forward to diving into the next book.
It was really good. Its one of the best paranormal books that I have ever read.it will keep you on the edge of your sit.
I love all of Laurell Hamilton’s books, especially the Anita Balke series, but this book really outlined a lot of the relationships in Anita’s life and was literally packed full of action and new ideas about magic. It is not for the squeamish and Hamilton’s knowledge of police work and guns amazes me. She does her homework. This is an exciting and thrilling book. Truly enjoyable.
AWESOME series! Laurell K. Hamilton is a master in creating unusual but extremely interesting life situations. This series combines the world as we know it today and the a different twist on vampires. I highly recommend the Meredith Gentry series!
This story focuses less on the vampires and weres and more on Anita’s assassin
friend. Some back stories are revealed, expected and unexpected. Less on romantic
side of Anita but lots of action and suspense.
Love the Hamilton books . Bold characters & lots of sex to get a heart pumping.