So I'm at 2 AM, deep in a coding session where I'm supposedly implementing a Perlin noise function for my thesis prototype, and instead I've got Skin Trade pumping through my headphones because apparently vampire serial killers in Las Vegas are more interesting than procedural terrain generation. (Dr. Patel, if you're reading this: I was multitasking. Productively.)
Here's the thing about the Anita Blake series - I came to it sideways. My D&D group's rogue player kept insisting Anita Blake was basically a min-maxed multiclass character, and honestly? By book 17, that's not a bad comparison. She's a federal marshal, a necromancer, carries enough firepower to make a ranger jealous, and has metaphysical ties to multiple supernatural factions. If this were a character sheet, your DM would've told you to reroll six books ago.
Anita Blake's Character Sheet Is Getting Ridiculous (And I Kind of Love It)
Let me compare this to where the series started. The early Anita Blake books were lean urban fantasy noir - think hardboiled detective fiction with vampires. Skin Trade is... not that. It's 18 hours and 22 minutes of Anita juggling her complicated metaphysical bonds, her even more complicated love life, and oh right, there's a serial killer sending her severed heads via FedEx. The Las Vegas setting gives it a different energy than the usual St. Louis backdrop - weretigers are a big deal here, and the local Master of the City isn't just another vampire politicking for power. There's actual territory stuff happening that reminds me of faction play in a good campaign.
But let's be honest about the elephant in the room. If you've been tracking the series, you know the books have shifted hard toward the romantic and sexual elements over time. Skin Trade tries to course-correct a bit - there's genuine police procedural work, crime scene investigation, and Anita actually does marshal stuff. But the ardeur (her succubus-adjacent metaphysical hunger) still drives major plot decisions, and there are extended sequences where the investigation takes a backseat to who Anita needs to sleep with to maintain her powers. If you don't like info-dumps, this isn't for you (but you're wrong) - except here the info-dumps are about metaphysical relationship logistics rather than, say, Sanderson-level magic system rules. Your mileage will vary wildly on whether that's a feature or a bug.
The actual murder mystery? Pretty solid when it's happening. The killer is connected to a character from Anita's past, and the escalation from severed head delivery to cops getting slaughtered by something supernatural had me genuinely invested during those stretches. Kingdom of the Wicked scratches a similar itch if you want the supernatural crime angle without as much relationship maintenance overhead, though I'd argue the mystery here is actually tighter. The pacing is uneven though - you'll get a tense action sequence followed by forty minutes of Anita negotiating the politics of her love life. It's like playing a campaign where the DM alternates between combat encounters and extended downtime RP with no transition.
Kimberly Alexis Carries a Heavy Pack
Kimberly Alexis took over narration duties for this stretch of the series, and compared to the earlier audiobooks, it's a different vibe. She voices Anita with this tough, clipped energy - very much the "I carry a gun bigger than your ego" tone that the character demands. It works. Where it gets tricky is the supporting cast. With a book this long and this many characters - weretigers, vampires, cops, federal marshals, multiple love interests - I wanted more vocal distinction between them. The male characters especially tend to blur together in delivery. Steven Pacey walked so other narrators could run, and while Alexis handles Anita herself well, she's not giving you the kind of character differentiation where you instantly know who's talking without dialogue tags.
That said, the energy never drops. Eighteen-plus hours is a commitment, and Alexis keeps the momentum even through the slower sections. The fight scenes come through with real urgency. I just wish the quiet conversational scenes between, say, Edward (Anita's sociopath bestie) and the various weretigers felt more distinct.
Who's Rolling Initiative On This One
If you're already deep in the Anita Blake series and you've made peace with the direction it's taken since Narcissus in Chains, this is actually one of the better recent entries. The Vegas setting is fresh, the Edward scenes are great, and the actual crime plot delivers. If you bounced off the series because of the increasing romance-to-plot ratio, Skin Trade won't fully bring you back - it tries, but it's still very much a post-shift Anita Blake book.
New listeners? Start at book one. Seriously. Jumping into book 17 of a series with this much accumulated lore and relationship baggage is like joining a campaign at level 17 with no backstory. You'll be lost.
I read this instead of writing my thesis, and I don't regret the 18 hours - but I don't think I'd spend a credit on it unless I was already committed to the series. The progression is satisfying if you're invested, but it's mid-tier Hamilton. Grab it on a sale or stream it.
