I read Obsidian Butterfly book to find out about Edward and, so far as that aspect is concerned, I was satisfied. For the most part, the story had enough twists and action to keep me going.

However, this may well be the last Laurell K. Hamilton book I will read. She's gone over to the Dark Side, and not in a good, entertaining way. Her writing has gone from humor to erotica to hard erotica to sick violence.

"I don't sleep with vampires," Anita Blake was known to say in her first novels. "I kill them."

I could forgive her for sleeping with Jean-Claude. Hey, the menage a trois -- featuring a vampire, vampire hunter and lycanthrope -- was interesting, but it took up too much space when I was reading for the mystery, interplay between good and evil, and action. And, Anita spends waaay too much time on "Why am I doing this?" internal dialogues when she wasn't involved with the Richard and Jean-Claude conundrum.

Then, the books got more violent. Women were abused, then men. I've had it with this last book. Yes, bad things happen to babies, but there is one scene in Obsidian Butterfly that is completely inexcusable. Having lived in Oklahoma City when the bomb blew up the Murray Building, I found what Hamilton wrote about the babies in the nursery cruel and completely unnecessary. An author can paint tragedy with a light enough brush that we have an idea of what's happening without wallowing and being almost obsessive about it.