Hit List (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 20) [Hardcover]

Laurell K. Hamilton (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 7, 2011

A serial killer is hunting the Pacific Northwest, murdering victims in a gruesome and spectacular way. The local police suspect "monsters" are involved, and have called in Anita Blake and Edward, U.S. Marshals who really know their monsters, to catch the killer.

The #1 New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series continues!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Those who like a plot that moves at the pace of a runaway locomotive will be delighted with this 20th installment of the Anita Blake series." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Laurell K. Hamilton is a full-time writer and mother. Her bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels include Narcissus in Chains, Obsidian Butterfly, Blue Moon, Burnt Offerings, The Killing Dance, Bloody Bones, The Lunatic Café, Circus of the Damned, The Laughing Corpse, and Guilty Pleasures. She is also the author of A Kiss of Shadows and A Caress of Twilight. She lives in a suburb of St. Louis with her family.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; First Edition edition (June 7, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425241130
• ISBN-13: 978-0425241134
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (405 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurell K. Hamilton is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of two series that mix mystery, fantasy, magic, horror and romance. Her Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels from Berkley Books began with GUILTY PLEASURES (now a hugely successful graphic novel from Marvel - the first sexy paranormal comic ever!) and continues with the SKIN TRADE, number seventeen in the series, in which Anita's complex personal and professional relationships with a master vampire and an alpha werewolf continue to evolve. There are now more than 6 million copies of Anita in print worldwide, in 16 languages. Hamilton's Ballantine series features Fey princess and private investigator, Merry Gentry and there are now six novels exceeding one million copies in print. Divine Misdemeanors, the eighth in the series will debut Octobe 29, 2009. She lives in St. Louis County Missouri with her husband Jonathon Green, daughter, one pug dog and one boxer/pug dog.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#25 in Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic

#27 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#31 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#41 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#63 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

#25 in Books > Romance > Fantasy & Futuristic

#27 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#31 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#41 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy

#63 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

496 of 528 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Impressed June 7, 2011

By Jessica

Format:Hardcover

Alright, to be fair I am a die-hard Anita Blake Fan. I LOVE all of LKH's work from Death of a Darklord, Anita Blake, and Merry Gentry. I have all her books and I reread the series at least once or twice a year. Now... I know a lot of fans have turned rabid and deeply despise the route the author has taken for Anita and the real issues from fan come sometime between Narcissus in Chains and Incubus Dreams. I've defended the characters, the author, and the series since those book were released and the 'drama' began.

I can't even argue with some of the points (such as the prevailing and all-consuming sex and harem, the every book new power gambit, the poor-me attitude, and the general lack of direction in plot). That being said I still love the characters and am usually (if not happy) content with the books. Something surprised me (in a happy way) Or I got learn a little more about the characters, or see something develop for Anita. something I was pleased about. I usually feel at least something was accomplished. Something that made a whole years wait and the purchase of the book worth it....

Not so for Hit List. I was horrified. After twenty books THIS is the best we get? YEARS of devotion as a fan and faithful purchase of the books, and we get this drivel? I respect that some liked the book. I can't imagine why, but I respect that opinion. As such I feel it is my right to say I didn't. I was sooo upset with this book I wish I hadn't bought it, and I can honestly say that I have never felt that way about one of LKH's books before.

Will I stop buying and reading her book because of this? Of course not. I still love the characters, but when I reread the series next time I may just skip Hit List all together. I wish I had enjoyed this book, I was really looking forward to it. A year worth of waiting... wasted for a book that just made me want to cry. Without giving too much away it was anti-climatic at best and not worth the pages it was written on at worst. I mean what happened to setting up a Vampire Council in the United States? WHERE are her main sweeties?

One review mocking said this was an Obsidian Butterfly-like book. Well the mocking was well deserved. We might have seen a new City (even though we saw new cities in Micha, Blood Noir, AND Skin Trade), but we saw none of the investigation that we saw in either Skin Trade or Obsidian Butterfly. It was more "OH yeah we checked out a crime scene, but there were no clues that we could use. oh yeah the body was torn into a bunch of piece, cant throw up on the body wouldn't be able to live it down. all the guys pick on me cause i'm the only girl, or they want to have sex with me, or i'm better at my job. and looking at the body and blood makes me wanna run away screaming..." blah blah blah

Okay *sighs* rant done. A whole new year to wait. Great.

477 of 512 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Marmee Noir Can't Save The Series June 7, 2011

By John Green TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

*Apologies to mm and her excellent review of Bullet*

It's official now- this series is dead in the water, not even a hint of inertia. Hamilton has crushed what little impetus the storyline had left.

This is another book about nothing: lots of talking, whining, snarling, blank looks, Anita's-is-bigger-than-your's-contests with cops, etc. Toss in a couple of semi-decent but somewhat hard-to-follow action sequences and some sub-plots to nowhere, and you get Bullet with less sex and a smaller cast. I spent the whole time reading this waiting for something significant to happen, something to raise the stakes, and never got it.

Since Hamilton hasn't supplied a real plot summary yet here's one for you: The Harlequin, a cadre of vampiric enforcers under the control of the Mother of All Darkness, commit seemingly random brutal murders of were-creatures across the country in an attempt to lure Anita away from the security of her home city of St. Louis so that their mistress can metaphysically inhabit her body. Realizing it's all a trap, Anita and Edward must find a way to stop the Harlequin before they can both kill again and capture Anita.

This entire book can be described in one word: filler. From the unedited first chapter which is nothing more than an 'As You Know, Bob' infodump to the dripping-wet rag of a finale, you're treated to endless amounts of pouting, emo-sessions and rehashing of old news. Hamilton blogged recently that her agent told her that Hit List would make a great starting point for someone who'd never read the series... not a good sign this far along since it means there's a lot of old info being recycled. You'd never think that hunting down the baddest set of killers on the planet could be so damn boring. Several sequences seem like they were lifted from Bullet and transposed onto different characters- check the scene discussing Olaf's proclivities and tell me it isn't exactly the same as the one regarding Valentina.

On the other hand there are instances where Hamilton may be realizing enough's enough. She claims she doesn't read any criticisms but this book belies that statement. Longstanding reader concerns like the lack of oversight for the vampire hunters, questions about Anita's family (whom we've never seen in twenty books!), law enforcement agencies mistrusting Anita for her relationships with paranormals, even the idea of feeding the Ardeur with food instead of sex- all get some attention but then are quickly hand-waved away. Ex: Anita explains over some drive-thru that food won't be enough to sate the Ardeur anymore, it's gotta be sex. This might've made more sense if she'd said it while chowing down on Surf-n-Turf instead of fries. Guess Hamilton got tired of always saying how food could control the urges while never having Anita eat anything, but that's out the window now.

But even that's not the worst of it. Many fans have expressed sentiments about either Edward or Olaf- or both- hooking up with Anita. All I'll say to that is Hit List has those roads laid out and paved with stone, particularly for Olaf. Edward's route is more indirect but appears just as inevitable.

But wait- there's more! The ending is so flat, so uninspired, so deflating and anti-climactic the loyalties of even the most diehard will be tested. In the promotional interview Hamilton admits she wrote herself into a corner with MoAD- not only a damning statement but confirms what's long been suspected about the series. There's no endgame, no objective, no overall story arc in mind for Anita- it's all a bunch of 'whatever, whenever'. MoAD is the biggest Big Bad of the series, the driving force behind the last few books and... well, if you've read the Merry Gentry series and thought what happened to Cel was lame, you're really not gonna be happy about this one.

Hit List is another meandering mess of sub-plots strung together and padded out into a novel. It's just more self-indulgent nonsense, and there's no place for the series to go now but off a cliff, and Hamilton seems determined to push it over the edge. Please... don't be a lemming and follow.

316 of 338 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars So disappointing to a long time fan..... June 7, 2011

By Chellbell

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I feel incredibly let down, despite being a loyal fan. Like so many of you, I have read every book Hamilton has published through the years. Yes---Lots of people love to hate on LKH, but she still sells plenty of books. Obviously some books were much better than others, but I've never written anything, so I'm ok with that. I even usually liked her plots, and when the sex got a little gross....well, I could skip a few pages and find a little more plot, or just something that made me laugh. I like many of the supporting characters, especially because Anita's relationships tend to be rather messy, just as in real life. I'm not a prude...I can even have fun with the whole shifter sex harem idea. I like Anita tough and I like her when she's a little angsty....we all have those days!

All that aside, I think I'm really done with the entire series this time.....

As previously noted, Hamilton has drastically dialed back the number of pages she devotes to sex. Not a bad thing IMO, since I can buy porn elsewhere. The final staw for me is the way this whole mess ended....with a resounding thud.

--The one sex scene in the book seemed entirely pointless to this plot.
--Who can keep up with the 15 shades of tiger rainbow? Do they do anything for the story, besides take up page space? These faceless, formless characters are all that remains.
--The great murder mystery I had been looking forward to wasn't much of one at all.
--We hardly got even a mention of her core supporting characters. --The great Mother of Darkness was defeated in about 3 pages... No great fight, no terrible casualties or life altering struggle....just a bit of metaphysical hand holding and she's gone.

What a waste.... Yeah, I'm done.