The Lunatic Cafe

Laurell K. Hamilton

I've been hearing for many years about how Hamilton's Anita Blake series starts off with a bang and then slides kicking and screaming down a very steep slope. I'm now up to book four, and I'm starting to see the evidence. While there's a mystery to be found here, a tale of eight missing lycanthropes Anita has to find, the real story is Anita, the untouchable Jean-Claude (and a vampire who wants to rival Anita for his affections, refusing to believe Anita doesn't want him), and Richard, who's obviously supposed to be the good guy but all too often comes off less as a principled hero than a whining prat. I'm all for romance novels, and even mystery novels with a heavy dose of romance (how else would I have managed to make it through the last twenty years of Dean Koontz?), but the mystery's starting to take a back seat. This is not an inherently bad feature; Jean-Claude and Anita, at least, are interesting and well-done characters, and some of the minor recurring folks are lots of fun (I want a book that focuses on Zerbrowski!), but the werewolves, on the whole, seem a rather boring, two-dimensional lot. I found myself caring not a whit about the power struggle between Richard and current pack leader Marcus, who might as well have been a clone of Alejandro from Circus of the Damned with a different supernatural bent.

I'll keep on with the series. At least this one-- hopefully-- prepared me for what's coming.