Touted by Twitter fans as "the best work since OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY" and "my new favorite of the series," AFFLICTION pulls Anita Blake back into the thick of the type of police investigation old-school readers love, retains the smexy edge for which Laurell K. Hamilton has become known, and continues a more mature emotional development for everyone, including the protagonist.

Anita Blake is still amazing. She tries to balance many relationships, constantly increasing powers, and her various negative reputations, particularly with police, FBI agents, and men in many authoritative roles. However, although Anita still doesn't balk from any competition of who might be the biggest and baddest, nor does she allow people to walk all over her because of her diminutive stature, but now she is willing to look at multiple sides of view and figure out what the best response might be for everyone...most of the time.

In AFFLICTION, Anita needs every last bit of her patience. She didn't intend to horn in on a police investigation; she just wanted to support her lover, Micah, while he confronted the family he left on such bad terms when he was trying to protect them from the true monsters. Now, they have to deal with religious zealotry, vampire politics, human politics, family secrets, and -oh, yeah- zombies who don't act anything like any zombies Anita, the zombie expert, has ever seen. And did I mention that Micah brought Nathaniel along to meet his estranged family as his and Anita's third partner? The fun just never stops!

AFFLICTION is brilliant. As well as having a great mystery and excellent character development, particularly considering some big issues left hanging from the prior work, AFFLICTION continues to hammer home some themes Hamilton has encouraged from the start, namely being true to one's self and a question of what makes a "real" monster. Finally, there's Edward!

This is the 22nd work of the series, so new readers should start with GUILTY PLEASURES and read straight through to AFFLICTION!