Review: Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton

This book was exactly what I have come to expect from the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. It didn’t blow my socks off but it was a good read with plenty of action and paranormal goodies. However, Skin Trade did stray slightly from the typical pattern of a book in this series. Mostly because Anita was in Las Vegas the whole time helping the police with an investigation and for once she didn’t have her men in tow. She intentionally left them at home. So the usual Jean-Claude, Micah, Nathaniel and Richard orgy was missing. Which wasn’t a bad thing!

In Skin Trade Anita teams up with Edward, Olaf and Bernado; her fellow executioners to investigate a series of murders that are similar to ones that happened previously in St-Louis. They go into the investigation already pretty confident on who the villain is. Anita is forced to go to the master of the city and his wife, queen of the L.A. tigers for leads and that’s when things get weird as is typical of these books.

I really like Edward (a.k.a Ted) as a character in this series and I especially enjoy the camaraderie between him and Anita. They compliment each other very well as partners and nothing surprises them about each other. These two executioners have each others backs no matter what. The interaction between them is always fun. Anita can’t really joke about her line of work with anyone else because well… it’s just morbid. Their friendly competition on who’s the better vampire hunter makes light of an otherwise rather dark career.

The thing that caught me a little off guard in this novel was the lack of sex. Normally that’s one of the main parts of the later books in this series. There’s still plenty of sexual tension and dirty jokes but Anita doesn’t actually get it on with anyone until the last 150 pages. However, once the ball starts rolling she definitely makes up for lost time! Jean-Claude’s presence was minimal in this book and was comprised of a few phone calls between him and Anita. I found that to be a little disappointing as he’s one of my favorite characters not to mention hot! (see my meme list of my top 10 fictional crushes).

In conclusion, Skin Trade is a great book that aligns perfectly with the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. If you’re more of a fan of Hamilton’s earlier books stay away as she hasn’t reverted back. Kinda hard to do that now what with how the story has progressed! But if you’ve enjoyed her later books, you know what to expect and this one is more of the same. It’s not a page turner from beginning to end but it’s a solid book packed full of paranormal greatness. I don’t gobble these books up like candy but I do keep coming back for more and have yet to read a really bad one. There’s a reason why Hamilton is a role model for many authors in this genre: she knows her stuff!

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