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Wednesday, October 12, 2016

REVIEW: Crimson Death by Laurell K. Hamilton

Crimson Death is the 25th book in Hamilton's Anita Blake series. Blake continues her job as a Federal Marshal and vampire executioner.  She's called by friend and fellow executioner, Edward to consult on a series of grisly vampire related crimes in Dublin--a unique land of its own regarding its history with magic, vampires and She Who Shall Not Be named AKA Damian's former vampire mistress.

This is very much a Damian centric book.  He hasn't been too involved in much of Anita's life even though he's part of her Triumvirate with Nathaniel.  All this changes based on Damian's apparent connection to the situation in Ireland and the role the trio needs to play in each other's lives.

Overall, I enjoyed the book far more than last year's Dead Ice; however, the narrative dragged quite a bit.  It is the same format as the past number of series entries-- introduce crime, then deal with WAY too much relationship and power struggle antics, then finally get on with the crime solving only to have the end action happen too quickly and wrap things up in far too few pages.

What I liked...

The actual Jean Claude interactions, that Damian was back and had a role, that Nathaniel is maturing and stepping up for what he wants. I always like when Edward shows up but he needed to be around more and this government tie-in that is probably going to become important in future books is interesting.

What I didn't like...

The pacing. There's just too much of the same relationship and political woes.  Poor Asher. Poor Anita. Poor Nathaniel. Etc...Etc...Etc. When we finally get into the 'meat of the crime, all the action happens way too quickly and then there isn't a lot of time for readers to process the outcome of character deaths and new metaphysical powers.

Anita spends far too much time justifying her lifestyle choices. It is time to move on and stop being repetitive.

Final rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars



#CrimsonDeath #AnitaBlake #vampires #horror #erotica #netgalley #review


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