Another great installment in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake Vampire Executioner series. This one was a bit different than the others: there was only one tiny scene with Jean-Claude and NO scene with Richard. Although she did think about them from time to time! Anita's taking a break from the werewolf and vampire boy-toys. This time, she's in New Mexico helping out assassin Edward on a gruesome paranormal case.
Obsidian Butterfly is particularly gory with lots of magic, murder and mayhem. However, if you have any squeamishness in reading about killing or hurting children, you may be put off by this book. Children are hurt and babies are killed. I'm putting it out there whether it's a spoiler or not. This book fell a notch or two on my "likability" scale because of that. However, the scenes weren't so horrible that it would have stopped me from reading the book. If it wasn't part of a series, yes, maybe I wouldn't have read it. But the scenes will be off-putting to a lot of readers. And they weren't necessary.
What I liked best about this book: the dynamics between Anita and Edward; getting to know Edward and his alter-ego Ted Forrester and seeing him in his home environment. The characterization was fantastic, although sometimes redundant. There's no romance between the two, and they've never really liked each other, but there's a respect they each hold for the other, even knowing one wouldn't bat an eye killing the other. Rating: 3.75 out of 5
