I think one of the things that is screwing up LKH's fanbase is she's basically changing genres. It used to be paranormal mysteries, and since NiC it's become paranormal romatice mysteries. (Well, romance or erotica, whatever you'd like).

I still like it b/c it's a growth of the characters and necessary to the plot choices that the author has made. I think that she's moving back to the mystery thing, she just needed to get over the hump that the ardeur introduced into the books.