
Sucker Punch: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 27
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A brutal murder, a suspect in jail, and an execution planned - but what if the wrong person is about to be killed?
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 Length18 hours and 26 minutes
- Audible release dateAugust 4, 2020
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB086D945CY
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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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 | #9,434 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #40 in Vampire Horror #131 in Supernatural Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #139 in Urban Fantasy |
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When the vampire power that causes all the sex kicks in its an interesting plot development. Anita has no control over it and at first didn't even know it existed or could affect her. In that situation the rape of Anita and her nonconsenting partners (which is what is happening when the vampire powers force sex between them) is understandable and I don't hate that. But as the books progress Anita refuses to learn to control these powers. That's when I started hating her. By refusing to control the power she is choosing to continue to rape everyone around her. Until finally she gets control of those powers and then she makes the conscious decision to do it. There are characters in this series that flat out say that they don't want to have sex with her. There's one that begs her not to use the power on him because he is a recovering addict of that power and is also gay. Guess who she uses it on? All of them. There are a couple of times when she uses it to good effect like when she uses it to enslave one of the bad guys that kidnapped her. But mostly just uses it because she can and she wants to.
I stuck it out until the book where they went to Ireland because I kept having hope that the series would return to Anita actually doing her job and fighting bad guys. I so hoped that book would be the one. I was disappointed and I refuse to waste my money on any more of Laurell K. Hamilton's drivel. That book had a stupid plot that showed potential for how good it could have been, stupid execution, and a whole lot of ridiculousness.
For those that don't know, Laurell came out as being poly herself several years ago so Anita being poly in the series makes sense as all her lead characters in her series are representative of herself. That's fine. My problem is that Laurell is using Anita Blake to work out the chips on her shoulder. Every single character you meet in probably the last 5-10 books falls into specific categories. They either: immediately want Anita and make it known; they want Anita and don't make it known and let jealousy make them angry and hateful towards her but of course she can smell their lust so she knows; it's a woman that wants one of her men and is bitterly jealous and so hates Anita (she has no female friends that she's not sleeping with. Although in the beginning she had one that, surprise surprise, falls into this category); or finally, they hate Anita because she sleeps around a lot, has a lot of scary powers, and/or is better at the job than they are. There's not a single person in the series that doesn't either want Anita or hate her. I feel so sad for Laurell that that's the kind of world she's living in because that much hate didn't start coming into the series until she came out irl.
And last, let me tell you about children. There is a boy in the series, teenager. 15 or 16 when he's introduced. He's one in the everybody rapes everybody, including Anita as a victim, group because a vampire takes over her powers. I don't have any feelings about that in any way. What I do have a problem with is that, after some moral back and forth, she eventually brings this boy home to finish raising him. She sends him to high school during the day and makes him do his homework and go to therapy but takes him to her bed at night. You decide how you feel about all that. I think it's gross. Then there's the subject of Anita having children herself. She's been very firmly in the category of not wanting them and KNOWING it would be stupid and dangerous, with her life being what it is. In the last book she was seriously considering having a baby. Not because she changed her mind and suddenly wanted one. That's an okay thing to do. No, she started thinking about it because one of her harem wants to have a baby with her and he kept picking and picking and picking at her and she wanted to do it to shut him up. For the love of all things good and right in the world. Anyone with a functioning uterus please do not follow this example! You have the right to not want children for any reason. And if you say no you have the right to keep saying no. If the man in your life keeps trying to coerce you into having them, walk away. He doesn't care about you because if he did he would respect your right to say no. Having a baby is a big deal. It changes your body and your life forever. Do not teach your daughters that it's okay to say no until a man comes along and suddenly it's a maybe yes, the way Anita has done in the series.
Basically, I'm done. This series gets 2 stars from me only because I enjoyed the first 8-10 books or so, but Anita Blake is not a good series. When the number of bad books outweighs the number of good, the series can no longer be counted as being good. (Also if you read this far, I'm shocked and I thank you for giving me your time. If you didn't read it all and skipped to the end, I understand and don't blame you)
I’d stopped reading LKH a few years ago. At the time I stopped, the books felt like 20% plot and 80% icky sticky orgies. I was bored.
But when I was offered a chance to read this, I was curious. Maybe something had changed. Maybe Anita was back to being a monster hunter. I decided to give it a try.
Keeping in mind that I’ve been away from the series a while, and I’m really not aware of what’s happened in recent books, but this…is weird.
There’s no sex. Zip. Zero. None. There’s sexual tension, but no icky sticky. If you love the icky sticky, you may want to stay away from this one. If that’s what made you stop reading it, you may want to try again.
There’s an honest to goodness plot! LKH has given us a pretty solid murder mystery plot and I, while I figured out the *who* pretty early, I was invested in the *why*.
But…
You also have new PC terms for various types of shapeshifters and I was sooooo confused. I can’t even remember them now. My mind mentally stumbled every time Anita would talk about therio-somethings and ailu(um)-somethings and not-bipeds-but-something-similar-somethings.
You also have Olaf. Now, I kind of like Olaf in a makes-me-very-uncomfortable-to-admit kind of way. But Olaf in this book is…extra. Olaf (you know rapist sociopathic serial killer) + Anita might make you very uncomfortable in this book. And if it doesn’t, please stay over there and don’t come near me – ‘cause you kind of scare me.
I already mentioned the lack of sex, but you do have a very boring scene that feels about 10,000 pages long in which a bunch of character gather in a room and read off a laundry list of Anita’s sexual kinks. It’s a very unsexy scene.
I just don’t know who the book will appeal to. If you like the shifter sex shennanigans, you might be disappointed. If you like not thinking of rapists as hot, you might be disappointed.
Yeah, it’s just weird.
*ARC Provided via Net Galley
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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 !

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...

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.

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.