About the Author

Laurell K. Hamilton is the bestselling author of the acclaimed Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels. She lives near St Louis with her husband, her daughter, two pug and two part-pug dogs and an ever-fluctuating number of fish. She invites you to visit her website at www.laurellkhamilton.org.

Reviews

In Hamilton's (www.laurellkhamilton.org) 17th entry in her New York Times best-selling Anita Blake series, following Blood Noir (2008), the vampire hunter heads to Las -Vegas to track down Vittorio, the serial-killer vampire from Incubus Dreams (2004). Narrator Kimberly Alexis, who has read several previous titles in this series, conveys Anita's strength and vulnerability by lacing her dialog with a slight edge of anger. Though her performance is generally clean and crisp, her rendering of Jean-Claude's just-off-the-boat, European-accented English translates as anything but erotic, and, except for Edward, her characterization of the other males is also unmemorable. Still, devotees will appreciate. ["Buy multiple copies for all those eager fans," read the review of the Berkley hc, LJ 6/1/09.-Ed.]-Jodi L. Israel, MLS, Salt Lake City Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

Hamilton's 17th Anita Blake novel draws the vampire hunter into a game of cat-and-mouse with a particularly monstrous vampire named Vittorio. Aided by sadistic serial killer Otto Jefferies, convenient sociopath Edward Kemper and fanged escorts handpicked by her lover Jean-Claude, U.S. marshal Anita offers her services to Las Vegas, now under siege from Vittorio's army of enthralled preternatural beings. Manipulated by the cunning Vittorio and occasionally misled by coincidental events, Anita employs her insight into Vittorio's condition and weaponized libido as the decisive weapons in this struggle. The book is largely concerned with the melodramatic conflict between hunter and hunter and Blake's soap-operatic love life, but Hamilton does manage some genuinely moving passages, particularly those describing the terror of innocent vampires caught up in the arbitrary and draconian U.S. legal system. (June) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.