Anita killed one of Edward’s backups – which means she
owes him a favour and he has finally called to collect. Or his alter ego has –
reassuring Anita that what he wants in New Mexico is nice and legal. And a
holiday away from her love life is probably not a bad idea.
Little did she imagine she’d be plunged into Edwards and
that the cold, lethal assassin has a fiancée and she has 2 children – all of
which have no idea about the man she’s going to marry.
And while the job may be legal – it’s brutal. Dozens of
people have been killed or mutilated – and the deaths are some of the worst Anita
has ever seen. Worse, it’s been done in a way neither she nor Edward’s
erstwhile and experienced back up have ever seen.
Anita has to find and stop the murderer even as the death
toll rises. That means facing Aztec gods, a fellow necromancer, ancient
vampires and a prejudiced police force – even before she gets to the monster itself,
which can feel her looking for it, and is watching her.
The writing style of this book – indeed of this series –
walks that line between being evocative, setting the scene and having that fun,
snarky, hard boiled internal narrative that I so love and being extremely over
descriptive, pointless and dull. Since this book is set apart from her lovers,
it pulls it back and goes back to earlier books where it is more for setting
scene, theme and mood, rather than us enjoying 20 pages describing just how
blue Jean-Claude’s very blue eyes are.
And it really does convey the sense of place. It’s one of
those books where you’re nearly sure the author must have spent some time in
the location in question because they seem to know it. There’s such a realness
to the scene and the area that you rarely get from second hand accounts.
The story also went back to the roots of what Anita does.
Police investigation. Finding the big gribbly monster and killing it. Following
the clues, enduring the grisly, horrifying crime scenes, trying to find the
monster before it causes too much damage, putting life, limb and moral code at
risk trying to protect innocent people. We have twists and turns, brilliant
ideas and deductions alongside the gruelling police work. It was a great story
to read, the plot never made me bored or had me turning away – and as in
previous books we have multiple plot lines that come together nicely, bringing
in Riker, Itzpaplotl and the Big Bad all in a natural, well paced and
inter-related manner.
The only time I felt the story pacing was off was during
the long and repeated monologues while Anita considered her own relationships
and when looking at Edward’s with Donna. I can understand the latter – but they
were drawn out, repeated, and the same message, information and growth could
have been shown much more concisely. My only complaint is I feel the story
ended with rather an anti-climax
I also liked the building of Edward as a character,
finally adding more to him than “man who has guns.” I’ve never particularly
liked him as a character – I always considered him to empty, more a convenient walking
weapon than any real kind of person. This added a level of depth even though it
was a series of masks – and showed something he truly cared about as well as
his growing relationship with Anita. It humanised him without damaging his aura
of mystery too much – it was well done.
There is a lot less sexual content in this book than
there were in previous – yet there are still moments which feel all the more
gratuitous and unnecessary because of that – like Bernardo having to strip. And
Blade. And Deuce. And every man having apparently had a penis transplant with
an elephant or the sexy times with the werejaguars. Nor did Anita have to be
seen as a potential sex interest for Bernardo, Ramirez, Red Woman’s Husband and
even Olaf. I don’t see this adding anything else to the story and just adds
that even the villains in this series must have 14 inch penises.
Anita continues to be a strong, determined woman who does
her own things, dishes out shit when deserves, takes the lead unless her
respect has been earned, makes her own decisions, refuses to be belittled and
can stand toe-to-toe with any other man there. She has some Keille
independence, but otherwise is a pretty awesome character. Anita faces
sexism, labels it and calls it out – she expects it and has a very realistic
and cynical view of what it is to be a woman in her profession and circles.
The other women in the book? Not so much. I’ve said before,
Anita seems to present herself as a strong character despite being female,
rather than a strong female character.
Donna is repeatedly presented as insecure, fragile, innocent (even Olaf
thinks so) and weak – which Anita has to drag her over the coals for. Professor
Dallas is petite, tiny – and the whole time we see her everyone, even the big
bad vampire, is worried about her being Olaf’s victim. Paulina is dangerous –
but we switch to the second mode of attack and Anita analyses how unattractive
she is (and insecure about Anita and her husband) and she ends up dead. Amanda
the Amazon – yes, I know – is a woman who can fight, but she is described as
not only being tall and strong – but only her breasts let you know she’s
actually a woman. She’s described in a way that downplays or dismisses her
femaleness – and she ends up dead.
