Hit List

Hit List
Laurell K. Hamilton, 2011

Note: this is the 20th paranormal thriller-romance featuring Anita Blake. Some unavoidable spoilers follow. 

Premise: Anita's out of town for a change, wearing her federal marshal hat. She, Edward and a bunch of endangered newbies are hunting a serial killer targeting weretigers. But is it all a plot by the Harlequin to expose Anita to The Mother of all Darkness?

Of course it is. Because at this point it would be silly to have a book in this series that was just a mystery, that wasn't linked to the nonsensical overarching plot. (/sarcasm)

That gripe stated, the plot of this one wasn't so bad, except that it was enough plot for a novella, or a long short story, not a novel. The rest was padded out with poor description and restating the same points over and over. Seriously, does anyone read these books before sending them to print? Anyone?

On the upside, there was only one sex scene! I'm shocked at the restraint!

If Hit List hadn't been so poorly written, I could talk about how interesting it is to be further defining Anita's powers, and finding more directed uses for them. The actual happenings of the plot climax were neat, but the writing failed to make them feel satisfying.

This series is either on its last narrative leg, or about to turn a drastic corner. That would be awesome, if after everything the story either starts focusing on a different character, or changes tack to be about global supernatural politics. I'm not really holding my breath for awesome, though.

I think the series may have missed its chance to really pull up out of the dive. This one was mindlessly fun, but only barely.

2 Stars - An Okay Book.