Flirt, by Laurell K. Hamilton

The only thing that I really disliked about this book was how short it was. Not a lot of bang for the buck. At the beginning of the book, Hamilton spends a couple of pages describing and introducing existing characters, such as Micah, Nathaniel and Jason, which is ridiculous in a novel of this length. How many people in their right minds are jumping into the Anita Blake series at the 18th book and have no idea who these guys are, how important they are to Anita, etc.? When I pay top dollar for a hardback this short, don't waste my time with information I already have, please.
Anita has encounters with a couple of potential clients for Animators, Inc. in the early going, and turns both of them down for valid reasons. The first one wants his wife resurrected so that he can just be with her longer, which is going to get really icky as her zombie incarnation begins to deteriorate. The second one wants her husband brought back to life so she can punish him for his sins in their marriage. One of these scorned clients decides not to take "No" for an answer, and sends a squad of contract goons to coerce Anita into performing the desired necromancy.
Anita's interaction with the hit squad is complicated by the fact that they are werelions, and her inner lioness is still looking for a mate (see what I mean about nobody in their right mind jumping into the middle of this series; there's just way to much previous plot to cover). Things wrap up somewhat predictably. This book is just an appetizer or sidebar to the main Vampire Hunter novels.
There's a pretty good afterword included, where Hamilton talks about where she got the idea for this novel, and how it all came together. A similar process took place when she was writing Micah, another short take in the series. Anyway, if you're feeling flush, go ahead and pick this one up, but it's really a bit expensive in hardback on a cost per page basis. It was about a 45 minute read for me.