Anita Blake thought she had at least some things in her life figured out; she knows how important her loves are, how much stronger she is than the typical US Marshal, how complicated her powers, both old and new, make her life, and she knows how absolutely, catastrophically, viciously dangerous the Mother of All Darkness is. Dangerous enough to make everything else that feels sure in her life look both more precious and more vulnerable than ever before.

In Hit List, shifters are dying in the Pacific Northwest. The Harlequin, the deadly execution squads of the vampire world, have split in two, and the ones throwing their allegiance in with Mommie Darkest are targeting the were, with bloody and terrifying results. But the were are not the only victims the Harlequin seek, Anita, the Executioner, and Edward, Death, are both in danger.

Anita has been fighting vampires, weres, and the rest of the preternatural for a long time. She has learned that not all “monsters” are evil, and not all humans are to be trusted, not even the rest of the Marshals she works with on a daily basis. But she has Edward, and the rest of her family in St. Louis, and a growing understanding of the world around her that allows her to carefully balance the often contentious aspects of her powers and personality. At times intensely vulnerable, and often more powerful than anyone realizes, Anita has learned that controlling her powers is more complicated than just delaying the use of her ardeur, but here, in Hit List, she begins to see the danger that lies in control, and the question of power may not be as clear, or as reassuring, as she would wish.

Because this is an Anita Blake novel, action, knife-blade sharp humour, fascinating characters and a vast and well thought out mythology all play significant parts in the plot. But it is Anita who carries the novel, her stubbornness and sense of justice that shape the plot, her empathy and insight the colour all of the interactions, and her death that threatens the end of the world.  Slight and dangerous, vulnerable and determined, powerful and yet still deeply dependent on her relationships with others, Anita Blake, US Marshal, never forgets what she must do, never leaves those without the ability to defend themselves alone.

“We followed the blood trail in the ever-growing dark. We followed the fresh blood even though every molecule in my body was screaming for me to run. Run before dark. Run before the vampires came. Run. But I didn’t run, and neither did the other marshals. We followed the trail, because that was our job. We followed the trail because if they got away and killed more people, none of us wanted to look down at the body and explain why we’d let shadows and maybe a threat of vampires scare us off. We were US Marshals. We hunted and killed the monsters. We did not run from them.”

Hit List is the twentieth Anita Blake adventure, and there is still so much to learn, so many allies to find, and a world that still needs someone to stand against the dark and defend it from what would stalk the innocent and those who fight for them.

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