The sensational new novel from the New York Times bestselling author featuring her vampire-hunting heroine Anita Blake Once you tell someone certain things, like, say, you got mailed a human head in a box, they tend to think you're crazy. Anita Blake's reputation has taken some hits. Not on the work front, where she has the highest kill count of all the legal vampire executioners in the country, but on the personal front. No one seems to trust a woman who sleeps with the monsters. Still, when a vampire serial killer sends her a head from Las Vegas, Anita has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they're dealing with. Only it's worse than she thought. Several officers and one executioner have been slain — paranormal style... Anita heads to Las Vegas, where she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward hiding behind his mild-mannered persona. It's a good thing Edward always has her back, because, when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses tiger too strongly to ignore it. The were-tigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher...

The sensational new novel from the New York Times bestselling author featuring her vampire-hunting heroine Anita Blake.

Some know her as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Others as Merry Gentry, LA private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, her life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama. Among her own kind, she has confronted enemies, endured the treachery and malevolence of her kith and kin, and honoured her duty to conceive a royal heir...all so she could claim a throne. But now she's turned her back on court and crown in favour of exile in the human world. However, while she may have rejected the throne, she cannot abandon her people. Someone is killing the fey. The LAPD are baffled and Merry is worried: her kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. And it's not just these murders that concern her. It appears mortals who she once healed with magic are now able to perform miracles themselves — a phenomenon that's wreaking havoc on relations between man and fey and provoking suspicions of forbidden powers. So much for leaving blood and politics behind her. Merry had dreamed of a quiet life, but evil knows no borders and it seems nobody lives forever — not even the immortal...

The first warning is unexpected, calculated. Malcolm, head of the vampire Church of Eternal Life, is no friend to Anita Blake. So when he asks for help, against creatures so feared that no vampire will willingly speak their name, Anita is surprised. But the Harlequin require different rules. The second warning is presented like a gift, with Anita printed on the box. Inside, carefully wrapped in folds of pristine tissue paper, is a plain white mask. The fact that it's white is good news. White means they are only being watched. The power connecting Anita with Jean-Claude, vampire Master of the City and Richard, Ulfric of the werewolves, has been increasing exponentially — and this has attracted very unwelcome attention. Anita Blake has the authority to pass judgment on vampires. The Harlequin have the authority to pass judgment on her. It is forbidden to speak of the Harlequin unless you've been contacted. And to be contacted by The Harlequin is to be under sentence of death.

Anita is pushed to her limits-both professionally and passionately — when she is called in on what appears to be a case involving a vampire serial killer preying on strippers.