Serpentine by Laurell K Hamilton

Serpentine is the first Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book in quite some time that is a good 90% Anita Blake Vampire Hunter. The sex scenes are brief and limited to less than ten people. The talk about the joys and heartaches of being Polyamorous are present, but not omnipresent as they have been in other books. Anita doesn’t add a new lover, doesn’t enslave anyone, and doesn’t outright murder anyone. Though she does come close.

There’s less talk about sex and vampire politics. There was more descriptions of The Circus of The Damned and the blue waters around Key West. The main story is about Edward getting married. Since it is Edward’s wedding, The Four Horsemen are reunited. So naturally, there has to be a Big Bad for Anita, Edward, Olaf, and Bernardo to track down and kill.

I really enjoyed Serpentine. It had more of the stuff I like and less of the stuff I don’t like. There were a lot of good bits here. Lots of drama and danger and heartache.

Anita is clearly a Big Bad now, but when someone challenges whether or not she is one of the monsters, she says God is still on her side and that’s all that matters. True enough, until Laurell decides to kill her, she’s safe. Which brings me to my favorite little scene in the book.

Anita looses control of her inner beasts and attacks one of her slaves. The slave is willing to die to please Anita, but she bites him public, and worse, in front of Edward. Anita has always trusted Edward to kill her when the need arises, but when she looks at him, she sees hesitation in his eyes instead of the cold blooded killer. This was not the time, but it was great moment.

When Anita goes full on Death Goddess, will Edward be there to save the world?

Serpentine was a return to the Anita Blake of old, more guns and flamethrowers and fewer endless orgies.

That’s a good thing.