Reading this, I was planning to give it three stars - and then I got to the end, and found the same issue that I noted in the last book: the inability to sustain an effective villain. Dominga is genuinely creepy, Dominga is genuinely scary - then Dominga, with a lifetime of skill and experience, Dominga who so overshadows the protagonist in talent and power, makes a mistake so unintelligent, so incompetent, that a graduate of the first day of villain school is shaking their head in disbelief. This, unfortunately, undoes in retrospect her creepy-scary factor. From there, Blake's victory is both certain and hollow, though it does have a undeniable whiff of justice about it.

The lesson to remember here is that when programming anything to do your evil bidding - from abacus to animator - it is garbage in, garbage out.

This book is not garbage. There was a lot to like about it - Anita Blake seems to be a bit brighter this time around, which I appreciate - but that ending. Again.