pub: Headline. 171 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £10.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-7553-7436-6).

check out websites: www.headline.co.uk , www.laurellkhamilton.org and www.anitablake.com

Anita Blake, vampire hunter and necromancer, is approached by Tony Bennington to reanimate his dead wife. To do this novel, 'Flirt', justice I would like to say a few words. That's probably enough.

For the first thirty pages of this novel, we are sat in the restaurant with Anita and her boys. Then finally something happens. They go off and do something else. Unfortunately, after the first thirty pages of this mind-numbing piece of prose, I didn't really care what they did. Towards the end there is a short sex scene to satisfy all the '50 Shades Of Grey' fans out there but even that feels perfunctory and inserted just to spice up a rather shambling plot.

It's hard to see the function of this novel' which is strictly a novella other than apparently it reads as a prequel to 'Bullet', her next, longer book.

I find the whole book self-indulgent and the only light moment which must prove that the author has a least a sense of the ridiculous is the amusing cartoon story at the end which conveys the first thirty pages of the plot. Yes, the plot is that thin.

To sum up, although Anita Blake does manage to raise the dead at the end of this book, it's probably time to bury this series.

Sue Davies
July 2011