The Killing Dance

This was a good Anita Blake book. It had everything I expect at this stage in the series: mystery, action, violence, horror, and hot erotic tension. All the elements combined almost perfectly.

Hamilton has done a great job of slowly evolving her characters over the course of the series so far. Anita's “it's complicated” relationship with Richard and Jean-Claude is as believable as a menage-a-trois with a vampire and a werewolf can be. Their tension didn't feel forced, and their anger and frustration felt real. Anita's exploration of her magic powers combines with her exploration of her sexuality effortlessly–and quite steamy, if I may say so.

Plotwise, there is one plot point with a decomposing vampire that didn't quite gel together (the plot point, not the vampire, although the vampire didn't quite come together in the end, either) with the rest of the epic-length story, but I'll forgive it.