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Nocturnal Book Reviews

Blogging at Nocturnal Book Reviews since May 2011 about steampunk, urban fantasy, historical & paranormal fiction, contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi & erotica.

The Enemy Inside (Edge of Darkness)

The Enemy Inside - Vanessa Skye The Enemy Inside is a very good police procedural and an excellent crime fiction. I've enjoyed reading about the hunt for the killer, the forensics and the slow detective work. The killings themselves are so vicious and psychotic that you can't help but get a chill just reading about them... But you hear BUT, right?

This is a great debut book for Vanessa Skye, but in my opinion characterisation of the main heroes did not go deep enough for me to truly connect to Berg and Jay.

Both have deep psychological issues and both are leading self-destructive lives.



Berg is more messed up and she inflicts physical pain on herself in a variety of ways just to escape the mental pain and guilt and darkness and feelings or worthlessness she is fighting on a daily basis. She was abused as a child and she is basically still punishing herself for something that she had no power to stop in the past.

When Jay accidentally finds out about her sex and BDSM addiction he just recommends her to go to sex addicts anonymous groups concentrating on sex issue instead of the root of her problems. I'm sorry but that's sloppy as hell. She self-harms basically no matter how, but she does. Berg needs therapy and self-harmers support group not the sex addict group! That just threw me.

Jay himself is a good man but he makes misguided decisions and both of them suffer for that.

What I found most interesting is the identity of the killer and the political intrigues behind the police relationship with the press. I also guessed the identity of the killer wrong first, and only two quarters of the way through I understood who it was, so that was pretty good.

Overall, a recommended read for anyone interested in crime fiction, but with few slight reservations.