Book Review: Crimson Death by Laurell K. Hamilton

Crimson Death
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Series: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (Book 25)
Publication: Berkley (October 11, 2016)

Description: In her twenty-fifth adventure, vampire hunter and necromancer Anita Blake learns that evil is in the eye of the beholder...

Anita has never seen Damian, her vampire servant, in such a state. The rising sun doesn’t usher in the peaceful death that he desperately needs. Instead, he’s being bombarded with violent nightmares and blood sweats. 

And now, with Damian at his most vulnerable, Anita needs him the most. The vampire who created him, who subjected him to centuries of torture, might be losing control, allowing rogue vampires to run wild and break one of their kind’s few strict taboos.

Some say love is a great motivator, but hatred gets the job done, too. And when Anita joins forces with her friend Edward to stop the carnage, Damian will be at their side, even if it means traveling back to the land where all his nightmares spring from...a place that couldn’t be less welcoming to a vampire, an assassin, and a necromancer: Ireland.

My Thoughts: The first thing I want to say about this book was that it was padded with a few hundred pages of over description of all the characters. Anita can't meet a character without pages of description about eye color, muscles or lack of them, and musings on their height and eye color. She can't encounter the same character again without repeating the same pages of musing.

The basic story is this: Ted Forester calls Anita and asks her to come to Ireland which is experiencing its first invasion by vampires. Something about Ireland has made it unfriendly for vampires and many other supernaturals. Ted wants her to come with some of her bodyguard because Ireland is thinking of forming a force to combat criminal supernaturals.

The problem is that Ireland isn't sure that she wants to allow a person with Anita's psychic gifts and penchant for violence into Ireland which doesn't have a death penalty and wants to treat vampires as people who have an illness. Another problem is that Damian who is one of Anita's triumvirate of power just managed to escape from the vampire who controls Ireland - a vampire most Irish are unaware of - and is terrified to go back. This vampire feeds on fear and has the ability to enter Damian's dreams which he then shares with Anita and Nathaniel.

Part of the reason things are changing in Ireland has to do with the fact that Anita and Jean Claude managed to kill the Mother of All Darkness and inherited some of her powers. Her death did leave many of the vampires without any brakes on their bad impulses. The Harlequin who were master vampires who acted as the Mother of All Darkness's enforcers have divided themselves among the more powerful vampires although they are still keeping their secrets and still watching Jean Claude.

I liked the magical landscape of Ireland which is populated with the Fey and selkies - two paranormal varieties that haven't appeared frequently in earlier books.

I did like this story which had a lot less of the overly graphic and kinky sex scenes than some of the earlier books in the series. I liked that Anita was more busy working on her relationships with her principals and planning her wedding to Jean Claude. There are still way too many characters who have relationships with Anita to keep track of. Micah and Jean Claude - two of the closest - are largely off stage in this story. Anita is still dealing with a prophecy which says she has to marry one of her tiger shifters or the apocalypse will happen but that one is resolved in this one without Anita having to add one more husband.

All in all I recommend this book to those who have been following along with Anita's adventures.

Favorite Quote:

"Your first lover gets a piece of your heart until you have enough therapy to take it back."

He laughed then. "Ah, ma petite, such a mix of romance and practicality -- I value it a great deal that you do both equally well."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.