Crimson Death

Laurell K. Hamilton

Oct 2016 · Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 25 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

CRIMSON DEATH by Laurell K. Hamilton is another amazing book in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series. I started reading the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series years ago. I am impressed with how Laurell K. Hamilton includes topics from books that happened early in the series. The characters have grown but stayed fundamentally true to themselves. In this story, Anita and a select group head to Ireland to help Edward solve a case possibly involving Damian’s maker. I love the Fae aspect of the story and how the land is different due to the magic there. The Selkies were a fascinating group. I also found the difference between the US and Irish police interesting. This case is both captivating and thrilling. A lot of things are happening simultaneously in this novel, including: changes to the Anita’s, Damian’s, and Nathaniel’s triumvirate, wedding planning/commitment ceremonies, and the ever-changing drama of the polyamorous relationships. Among the drama, you had Asher’s groveling for forgiveness, Damian’s and Cardinale’s relationship, and Harlequins’ attitudes. I love that we are kept up to date on the many characters in the series. I enjoy how everyone’s powers change throughout the series. For example, the fact that Jean-Claude’s line of power progressed from feeding on lust to include love. I appreciated that Sin’s earth powers are developing and look forward to seeing where that goes. I like how Damian and Nathaniel grew in this story, making the triumvirate more powerful. I also enjoyed Dev’s involvement in the story. He is both thoughtful and insightful. Laurell K. Hamilton is an exceptional writer. She does an amazing job tying things together. CRIMSON DEATH is thought-provoking and spellbinding. Followers of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter will not want to miss this book. If you haven’t read this series, I highly suggest starting with the first book, GUILTY PLEASURES. Laurell K. Hamilton continually references and includes situations that happen in prior books. If you read the series from the being, you will definitely be more invested in the series. After twenty-five books, I still love this series. Laurell K. Hamilton does an amazing job of keeping the series fresh. I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Complimentary copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Laurell K. Hamilton delivers again! It must be a little bit crazy in her writer's mind. I, personally, have to read Anita and Merry books with a week in between, or they'll try to mix together in my mind. Laurell can write these characters at the same time. She's never alone, the characters are always there. I was hooked the first sentence of Guilty Pleasures. I am still reading 30 years and 30 Anita books later❣️❤️💕💖

*Mild spoilers ahead beginning paragraph 3* Edit: Google doesn't allow formatting, don't read past "Meredith Gentry" if you're avoiding knowing anything about what happens. This book strays as far from classic Anita Blake as it can. I started the series when I was 13 years old, 15 years ago, and since have read and re-read the series a minimum of 5 times. While I'm so incredibly happy that we got to delve more into Damian and his past, along with reconciling him and other characters back into Anita's life in a satisfying way, I am incredibly disappointed with the lack of references to previous events in the series (Bloody Bones would have been perfect as it was Anita's first brush with Fey in the books), and the rich lore laid out in the Meredith Gentry series. By the time we get to Ireland, which is around 2/3 into the book, it is every bit as much as Anita describes the airport, the same as everywhere else. If a reader has never seen pictures of Ireland or experienced its culture, they would be left utterly in the dark by lack of description. Based on writing alone, I am more familiar with Damien's bedroom with Cardinale and then its makeover than Moroven's stronghold, Dublin, or any other location. One of the things that has drawn me in has been Laurell K. Hamilton's ability to create a living, breathing world, something that has been cut from Crimson Death. I'm not going to complain about the character development, and I actually enjoy the fleshing out of the complicated romantic and emotional life Anita leads with her family, but at this time I feel more as a reader like someone who is more on the outskirts of Anita's circle than engrossed in it. We get little to no explanation to the sudden spike in the second Triumvirate's power and ability levels, or exploration of what its potential is save for, "we drank the dark." Everything crime related feels rushed and doesn't get fully explored, there's no real mind-work to it or real mystery as there was in the previous books, with all revelations coming together in the last 20 pages of the books offhandedly, and I think that offends the most with the villain of the attacks in Dublin revealed as nothing more than a name and "it was him" in the midst of the final fight, then some magic, and then nothing. Then as Anita loses another lover, we're again offhandedly presented with two more revelations that are key parts of the story given nothing more than a few sentences. All in all, the whole thing felt incredibly rushed and under pressure. We're coming close to the end of a great series, and its the curse of this stage that there is going to be a point we're left scratching our heads in confusion or left somewhat disappointed.

About the author

Laurell K. Hamilton is a full-time writer and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series and the Merry Gentry series. She lives in a suburb of St. Louis with her family.