I think there may be an end to the series coming, but this is my speculation. I read somewhere a few years ago that the Anita Blake series was intended to be open-ended while Merry Gentry was planned with the end in mind and might only be around 9 or 12 books or something. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Hamilton is fed up with copping flak for Anita’s sex life and decides to move on.

There have been hints of a change to Anita’s lifestyle and it looks like she may face a fork in her path and choose what she wants to focus on doing with the rest of her life. It looks like Hamilton may decide to narrow the focus to either the crime or the metaphysical, or it could mean that Anita is planning on winding down. She’s been spread a bit too thin for the past few books.

***SKIN TRADE SPOILER***

Anita has questioned how long she can continue working crime scenes, when she has to travel because she has to take people to feed off and face suspicion everywhere she goes over how close she is to the types of creatures she hunts and how human she is. There are also two ways she could lose her badge:

1. Her body picks an animal form to turn into and she becomes a true shapeshifter; or

2. The law recognises the existence of living vampires and makes it illegal for them to be in law enforcement, just as a cop who is turned into a proper dead/undead (?) vampire gets fired.

But then she noted how well the psychic SWAT team had worked in Vegas and that there is a possibility of something like that being established in St. Louis, but that opportunity won’t be immediately available.

Then, it’s also becoming clear that Anita’s Executioner duties conflict with her duties as Jean-Claude’s human servant, and just as importantly, actually being perceived as his servant rather than his equal or (God forbid) master.

On the other hand, Anita has taken on the Council and won for now. She’s in a battle to keep Belle Morte at bay and is also in danger of being possessed by the Mother of All Darkness. Assuming Anita defeats her, what could possibly top that? Facing the entire Council? The Harlequin again? If she’s strong enough to beat the vampires’ nightmare, wouldn’t every other threat pale in comparison? Maybe she ends up in a stalemate with the other two vampires.

***END SPOILER***

Decadence, I’m curious to know if you think there’s an end in sight for this series?

I thought the funniest bit was when Anita slipped up and mentioned that female vamps aren’t as dead as Bernardo thought!