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
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Penguin Audio
ASIN

B086D945CY
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Unabridged
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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	#17,166 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #69 in Vampire Horror #190 in Supernatural Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #258 in Urban Fantasy

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thirteenlilsykos

Shockingly enjoyable

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

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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*

2 people found this helpful

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Chimeric

Great writing, disturbing content

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

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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!!!!
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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.

71 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Christmas gift

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 22, 2022

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Awesome

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lynguy1

Complicated Relationships

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 19, 2021

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There is no doubt in my mind that Laurell K. Hamilton could write almost any genre of book, not just the supernatural romantic suspense / paranormal and urban fantasy novels that she is well known for. Sucker Punch is more of a supernatural suspense police procedural blended with a very uncomfortable romantic suspense story. It is the twenty-seventh book in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. This time, the main setting is in the fictional town of Hanuman, Michigan. U.S. Marshal Winston Newman has asked for Anita’s help. Both are U.S. Marshals with the Preternatural Branch. Bobby Marchand, a cat-based lycanthrope, is accused of killing his uncle Ray, the only father he has ever known. While the evidence points to Bobby and a warrant of execution is already under way, something seems off about the murder.

This book focuses on the investigations of the marshalls, the state police, and the local sheriff’s department for a large part of the book. However when Anita’s long term friend, Marshall Ted Forrester and another marshall, Otto Jeffries show up, the story gets blended with several agonizing interactions between Anita and Otto.

Whether it is Anita’s relationships with the many men and women in her life, the relationships between Anita and her co-workers, or relationships between the local police and the U.S. Marshals; there is a lot of drama. This is not like most of the books in the series where there are a lot of steamy scenes. Besides the specific murder case, this novel is about how Anita is struggling personally with metaphysical changes that are affecting her ability to do her job effectively, and how she is struggling with all of the various types of relationships she has at the moment. It was interesting to see some additional character development with Otto; scary though it was.

There are a lot of themes running through this novel including anger management, various phobias, verbal abuse, racism, gender bias, lies, deception, the paranormal justice system, and much more. There is also a look at what can happen when police know both the victim and the accused.

Overall, this book was a study of paranormal police investigation and complicated relationships with suspense and occasional action intermixed.

I have read all of the books in this series up to this point and can’t wait to start the next one. They are best read in order as there is a lot of background and character development that builds over time. This novel is definitely a departure from the previous books in this series. However, the author continues to bring great characters, entertaining and unique story lines, action, suspense, and romance together in her novels.

This is my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own and are not biased in any way. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

2 people found this helpful

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larry leggett

very fast

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 24, 2022

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in excellent shape and price was really good

One person found this helpful

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Carol Banks

Tedious, Boring, Offensive

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

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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

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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

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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

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Bleh

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

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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

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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

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