When a fellow US Marshal asks Anita Blake to fly to a tiny community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on an emergency consult, she knows time is running short. When she arrives, there is plenty of proof that a young wereleopard killed his uncle in the most gruesome and bloody way possible. As the mounting evidence points to him, a warrant of execution is already under way.

But something seems off about the murder, and Anita has been asked for her expert opinion on the crime scene. Despite escalating pressure from local cops and the family’s cries for justice for their dead patriarch, Anita quickly realizes that the evidence doesn’t quite add up.

Time is against Anita, as the tight-knit community is up in arms and its fear of supernaturals is growing. She races to uncover the truth and determine whether the Marshals have caught the killer or are about to execute an innocent man - all in the name of justice.

Listening Length

18 hours and 26 minutes
Author

Laurell K. Hamilton
Narrator

Kimberly Alexis
Audible release date

August 4, 2020
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Audio
ASIN

B086D945CY
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
See all details

Read & Listen

Switch between reading the Kindle book & listening to the Audible narration with Whispersync for Voice.
Get the Audible audiobook for the reduced price of $12.99 after you buy the Kindle book.

Your audiobook is waiting!

Click above for unlimited listening to select audiobooks, Audible Originals, and podcasts.
One credit a month to pick any title from our entire premium selection — yours to keep (you'll use your first credit now).
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel online anytime.

Learn more about membership

List Price: ~~$38.50~~

You Save: $4.81 (12%)

By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible’s Conditions Of Use

Sold and delivered by Audible, an Amazon company

People who viewed this also viewed

Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1

People who bought this also bought

Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1

Dead Witch Walking: Hollows, Book 1
Kim Harrison
3,023
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
Moon Called: Mercy Thompson, Book 1
Patricia Briggs
6,029
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
Fantastic Hope
Laurell K. Hamilton - editor
769
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
Obsidian Butterfly: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
Laurell K. Hamilton
1,494
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
Skinwalker: Jane Yellowrock, Book 1
Faith Hunter
2,585
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial

Related to this topic

Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1

Tempting Danger [Dramatized Adaptation]: World of the Lupi, Book 1
Eileen Wilks
406
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
Ripper: Hunter: A Thieves Series, Book 1
Lexi Blake
312
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
The Wolf at the Door: The Big Bad Wolf Series, Book 1
Charlie Adhara
766
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
Them Bones
Carolyn Haines
424
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial
Oath Sworn: Jacky Leon, Book 1
K.N. Banet
2,147
Audible Audiobook
$0.00 Free with Audible trial

Product details

Listening Length	18 hours and 26 minutes
Author	Laurell K. Hamilton
Narrator	Kimberly Alexis
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	August 04, 2020
Publisher	Penguin Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B086D945CY
Best Sellers Rank	#11,905 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #130 in Supernatural Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #155 in Vampire Horror #163 in Urban Fantasy

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

6,589 global ratings

5 star		75%
4 star		14%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all customer images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

thirteenlilsykos

Shockingly enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

I've been reading the Anita Blake series since the beginning and they quickly and easily became my favorite series. I'd never read anything like it. The diverse preternatural creatures mentioned in the first books were not like any I'd ever read in an adult supernatural fiction book before. Then somewhere along the way, Anita started having sex again and that became the focus of the story. Her job as an animator was on the back burner and then disappeared. The only supernatural creatures she dealt with was either zombies, vampires or wereanimals. Thank goodness she wasn't intimate with the zombies, although I don't think I would have been too surprised if it had happened. I've read each book in this series (and the Merry Gentry series) and after awhile I felt like I was just reading Ms. Hamilton's (not so) private porn diary.
All that negative stuff aside, I really enjoyed this book. It reminded me of the original books, mainly because there was an actual story and Anita focused on the task at hand and not the "parts" of every man around her. Granted, there were some parts of the book that I could do without, like how inevitably a man has to have a problem with her "sweeties" or how Ms. Hamilton uses her favorite phrases/word over and over.
Currently it's "yummy" but does anyone remember "tightened things low in my body"? I sure wish I didn't. But I think I'm just going to have to accept these things as just part of Ms. Hamilton's writing.
Ms. Hamilton is a wonderful writer and if I hadn't loved the early books in this series so much, I think I would've given up on the series a long time ago. I'm glad I didn't because it looks like the series is looking up again.
*fingers crossed*

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael Lynn McGuire

Book number twenty-seven of a twenty-nine book dark fantasy series

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 20, 2022

Verified Purchase

Book number twenty-seven of a twenty-nine book dark fantasy series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Jove (Penguin) in 2021. I have book number twenty-eight in my SBR (strategic book reserve). I suspect that there will be more books in the series. Plus the author has a new series about angels, demons, and angel speakers.

U.S. Marshal Anita Blake has been called to Michigan by a fellow marshal that she helped to train. And that marshal has a execution warrant for a were leopard who supposedly killed his billionaire father. But all is not what it seems and the real facts are very complicated as it becomes obvious that the were leopard did not kill his father.

There is a wiki for the Anita Blake books at:

My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars

Helpful

Ashley Losee

If you haven’t read it you’re missing out

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 11, 2023

Verified Purchase

As always LKH does not disappoint! It’s a awesome book that draws you into her world! Makes you not want to put the book down! The sleeve for the book has a beautiful design on it, with a pretty cool texture! If you’ve read all the other novels in this series, then this is a must read! More detective work in this novel then there has been in the last couple books.

Helpful

Chimeric

Great writing, disturbing content

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

For fans of the "old" Anita Blake, the one where she solved crimes more than she had sex, this is a great transitional book for Ms. Hamilton to move away from the relationship- and vampire-politics-based writing that's dominated most of her recent novels. Additionally, the writing was first rate. Tight in a way I hadn't even known I'd been missing. Every chapter ends with a punch (no pun intended) something quotable, something memorable. I just can't stress how much I enjoyed the level of writing in this book. Maybe if I mention that towards the end I found a typo and it threw me out of the story in a very jarring way will illustrate how deeply I'd fallen into the story, because typos always throw me out of a story, but this was the only one I noticed.

That said, I found some of the content problematic. Not in the way that prudes would, not in the violence and killing part that most people might object to, but in the way that it so clearly illustrates the myth of "only a few bad apples" in the "rest of the cops are good" barrel.

I think it will come as no surprise at all that Laurell K. Hamilton would "back the blue" to the extent that she does, whether intentionally or not, it comes through that she truly believes we are safer with the police than without them. I give her credit that she also shows that the justice system as a whole is flawed and in need of change, also that it seems like every change seems to just make a new problem rather than solving everything.

No, the problem I had was that it applies an unnecessary justification for good cops covering for the dangerous faults of bad ones. There will of necessity be a SPOILER in my reasoning, so here's your:
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

When Anita rolls the dancer at the strip joint, she doesn't do it on purpose, but without a literal (in the literal sense of the word) Deus ex machina stepping in to save her (and the innocent dancer) with a literal miracle from God, then she'd have rolled that woman to the same extent that she'd rolled Nicky and others. She'd have taken the rest of her free will and life from her. I don't believe she'd have just dumped her, but she'd have irrevocably changed her life and made her a slave.

And Newman never even questioned whether or not he should cover for her, because that's just what cops do for one another.

It did help somewhat that the Captain of the locals did hold his one deputy accountable for attempted murder, or at least keep him in jail as a lesson, but we all know that he never intended to actually charge him, because he didn't charge him at any point. Again, good cops cover for bad cops and handle things like this internally, and we're all just supposed to accept that the way they decide it should be handled is okay when sometimes innocent lives were lost and most of them don't even end up losing their jobs.

The only reason I didn't take a star off for that is because I realized that this has happened in one way or another in most of her books, but it never bothered me before. Taking a star from a good, hard-working writer for something that I only now realized about my own self seems just too hypocritical.

So, I gave it 5 stars because the writing was great, and the story moved back towards, not a better direction, necessarily, but the direction that hooked me on the books to start with.

72 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Carol Banks

Tedious, Boring, Offensive

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

I had had enough of the poly angst after Affliction and didn't bother with Jason or Dead Ice, tried again with Crimson Death (shouldn't have bothered) and didn't bother with Serpentine but tried again with this offering as the reviews were not too bad and sample was ok-ish but it wasn't long before I realised that we have not moved on at all in Anita's dreary unhappy life. Anita has gone from feminist, butt kicking herione to a very unhappy victim, constantly trying to justify her poly lifestyle which seems to bring her nothing but unhappiness and we can't now see the real Anita buried as she is under the ever increasing number of so called lovers - there appears to be only sex in her life and no love at all now. perhaps the author has backed herself into a corner and can't escape although Anita is supposed to be very powerful and all her 'lovers' are bound to her by magic so surely there is a way out of this - Anita is having therapy and i assume the author is too as this book reads like therapy sessions verbatim and at great length. the actual storyline is so padded out by all this that I sometimes forgot what it was and it could have been a short story if one could remove all the deeply disturbing hand wringing - in this book Anita seriously feels that she should have sex with a serial killer so she doesn't have to kill him or be killed (oh and he is a useful marshall!! so that's ok - NOT) although she says several times that she doesn't want to have sex with him!! - surely that is rape which is NOT alright in any way, shape or form and again shows Anita's victim mentality - where has our perky, feminist gone?. She also has some cringeworthy scenes with lesbian fantasies although Anita keeps saying she is not really into it which seems rather insulting to lesbians and if she was a real person feeling unhappy with the sexual demands and lifestyle which seems to have been forced upon her then I would be advising her to get out of the relationships. she is also conflicted about marrying Jean-claude and this has been a theme through the last several books - as Jean-claude is hardly mentioned these days perhaps she should forget the marriage altogether. the early days of her romance with Jean-claude and Richard were very well written and believable - nothing in the last 2 books I have had the misfortune to read has been anything approaching believable. I have read and enjoyed fifty shades so I don't feel that I am unduly prudish but fifty shades was also a love story which Anita's is not anymore. also the increasingly complicated PC terms for werewolves and the like are annoying. what started as escapist fantasy feelgood enjoyable stories have become something much darker and disturbing and I for one can't justify spending any more of my money supporting this author's much needed therapy sessions. I will re-read the series up to Kiss the dead and possibly Affliction and then pretend there are no more stories because the Anita we knew and loved is long gone.

43 people found this helpful

JudeC

Boring, angst-laden and offensive on many levels

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

So Sucker Punch came up on Kindle for 99p so I thought that I'd give Anita a go again. This is book 27 - and like many others I gave up at around book 9 or 10 when I always assumed LKH's editors were sacked.
I'm very unhappy about this book - not least because the author is not remotely interested in the plot which only occurs occasionally. On the plus side Anita isn't having sex with everyone she meets (I used to have to have flow charts to follow this) but instead is contemplating, at great length and with a huge number of people, having sex with Olaf the sociopathic serial killer. At one point there is a discussion of what level of bondage is acceptable and how to make sure that Olaf doesn't kill Anita as part of their debated sex life. This isn't acceptable on any level - is this considered publishable because most of the characters are were-animals - sorry, therianthropes? And the 'let's be PC about what we call those infected with therianthropy' is utterly bizarre. Next to this the poly love life fades into insignificance although there are various efforts to talk it up which feel as though they should be in a religious tract not a work of fiction.
The final straw for me was when Anita visits the house where the murdered person lives and sees his room of big game hunting - lions, tigers, an entire elephant etc. Morally repugnant yet Anita (who has half these animals inside her) makes no comment on how unacceptable it is in the 21st century to do this.
Definitely the end of the road for me with Anita Blake now.

6 people found this helpful

Ms. Theresa M. Derwin

Caged Hunting for Anita

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

Okay, this is a definite change in direction for the Anita Blake books, and actually, aside from a shaky start, I really liked it.
My issue at the beginning is exposition which is rather like info dumping.
Yes, it's book 27, but I think a short 'About the series so far' style summary might work better than the repetition of last events through dialogue. There's a lot of "oh yes, I do remember the time" etc.
However, apart from that there's a lot to like here.
There's talk of sex but no longer lots of gratuitous sex scenes.
The plot itself isn't a traditional monster hunt, more of a murder mystery and an attempt to not follow through on a warrant to kill a wereleopard, Bobby.
We get to meet new characters but also see some character thoughts on polygamy, Religion and more importantly the civil rights of supernaturals plus prejudices they face, which feels timely, to be polite. Anita is also still a hard killer but balanced and encouraging therapy here, besides which, there's a very important and revealing story on PTSD.
Olaf is along for the ride and there are some I interesting developments there, as well as an ending which was incredibly emotional and I think Hamilton has tapped into some serious emotions in this one.
I really like this development and want to see the Olaf angle and the next stage in Anita's life written about, and the wedding !

6 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Bleh

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 28, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is the first review I've done for an LKH book. I've stuck with this series through everything because I do want to know where it's all going (and I've found bits to enjoy in every book - ok I had to really search in Blood Noir). Saying that, after 10+ hours of reading....nothing happened. I say skip this one, it's not really adding anything to the overall story. Which is a disappointment as now I have to wait 2 years for an actual plot (fingers crossed!). I remember Laurell talking about writing and saying that if a scene didn't move the story forward, it shouldn't be there. Based on that, 80% of this novel should have been removed.
And I thought Anita was smarter than this! Really not a mystery who done it!

I did enjoy glimpses of what's going on with the wedding but not enough to say this was a good book. Oh well. Maybe she's setting it up for the next one?

Well, we'll see won't we? At least the pandemic should have passed by then...

8 people found this helpful

Val Naylor

A little disappointed

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 25, 2020

Verified Purchase

I've been a bit disappointed in the last few Anita Blake books. There seems to be an inordinate amount of time discussing sex, relationships, sex, monogamy, polygamy. The actual superintendents to swallowed up by this.

Sucker Punch seemed for The first two-thirds to pick up the grit and strength of her older books. I was drawn in, then it seemed to slide. The sociopathic Olaf reappeared. Wanting to date Anita, this led to about 100 pages of discussion on her relationship with her court, what would be classed as acceptable behaviour between them. Naturally she has no intention of doing the horizontal mambo with him but this went on so that the climax of the book (no pun intended) happened so fast i was taken by surprise.

Don't misunderstand, I love Laurells books but part of me wondered if she had gotten a degree in psychology. Enjoy the book, I did, just be prepared for the in depth psychology.

4 people found this helpful

See all reviews

Sucker Punch: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 27 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Read & Listen

Enjoy a free trial on us $0.00

Buy with 1-Click $33.69

People who viewed this also viewed

People who bought this also bought

Related to this topic

Product details

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Enjoy a free trial on us

$0.00

Buy with 1-Click

$33.69