Okay, so here's the thing. Three books in, and this series is already relying on repetition and reversion. After a welcome rise in IQ in "The Laughing Corpse", Anita's back to her first book self. Unfortunately that self is not very bright - at the end, Richard has to tell her what he is - a blind woman could have seen the very heavy hints along the way, Anita - and as before, this is frustrating to me as a reader. I want to think well of the main character, but she appears to have "Idiot" periodically stamped across her forehead.

Worse (and again, this is a problem that's come up before) so do the antagonists. Exactly like the ending of the last book, the Big Bad gives Anita the means by which to off them - despite the fact that doing so goes against all common sense and basic experience (and Oliver has no excuse here, he's a million sodding years old so all rookie mistakes should be well past by now). Of course, once she's given the means Anita immediately offs said threats, as anyone with two brain cells to rub together could see that she would.

Threats stop being threatening when they can be out-thought by a drunken toddler, is what I'm saying. I'm ploughing my way through these books because this series is a giant in urban fantasy and I want to be well-read in it, but for the love of God. The only person I'm actually rooting for now is Edward, and that's only because he hasn't done anything monumentally foolish - yet. I suspect it's only a matter of time.