Obsidian Butterfly
Laurell K. Hamilton
Book Nine, Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series

Vampire hunter Anita Blake owes a favor to a friend - a man almost as dangerous as the ancient evil she's about to face...

One of my complaints about this series will always be how incredibly short and vague the jacket descriptions are. It just bothers me. I'd like to know a bit more about a book before I dive into it. Even though this is a pet peeve of mine, it will not effect what I rate this novel.

There are two major bright sides to this book. First and most importantly it's focus is on the mysterious Edward. Death to Anita's Executioner. It finally shines a bit more light on him, reveals more about him, and makes him a lot more well rounded and a bit more human. The fact that this novel focuses on Edward is a very good thing.

The other good thing is that this book seems to be going back to it's roots as a supernatural mystery and not merely supernatural sex and romance.

That being said, unfortunately, the plot was rather weak and convoluted, as if the author had a difficult time trying to keep excessive sexual scenes out of the novel. The ending and the monster reveal didn't make a lot of sense as to match up to the murders that had been happening and the reveal of the big bad guy in this book was a disappointment.

The action scenes and background plot about artifact thieves that are going after a family Edward cares about was much more riveting than the main plot and should have been the central focus of this novel.

I would not recommend this book for kids or even teens. There are some torture scenes in there that aren't appropriate for younger readers, and to be honest just shouldn't have been in the novel.

While this is better than the last few in the series, it still left a lot to be desired.

My rating: Three out of five snails.