Now that you have finished up The Edge of Darkness series how do you feel? Relieved, excited? Has the series turned out like you hoped?
I’m a little sad if I’m being honest! I have dedicated nearly a decade of my life to these characters. They’ve grown as I’ve grown; they’ve changed as I’ve changed. They’ve evolved over time and taken on a life of their own and now I’ve finished the series I feel a little empty.
When I first started writing the first book, The Enemy Inside, I had no idea that the series would end up being three books in total. I had no idea how to even write one book, let alone three!
How I envisioned the story has also changed over time as I let the characters do their thing, and I still sometimes get storylines for them popping into my head at odd moments. All their individual playlist as also still on my phone, and if I want to visit with them, I listen to the playlists.
The series ultimately turned out differently to what I had planned way back in 2005, when I started writing it, but I’m very happy with the way it turned out. I feel I stayed true to the characters and that’s all you can do as a writer.
I’ve started a new paranormal series and the first book, Koven, will be released halfway through 2015. I’ve also written an erotic thriller, Evidence, which I am editing at the moment.
Who knows, maybe after I’ve written a couple of the other books I have in my head, I might revisit Berg and Jay, just to check on them and see how they’re going. I’ll just keep writing because I love it, so stay tuned!
Bloodlines is the third and final book in the Edge of Darkness crime fiction series.
Broken is the second book in the series and is available in eBook and paperback on Amazon, Kobo, Book Depository, Barnes and Noble, TWCS and Booktopia.
Bloodlines will be released January 15, 2015, on Amazon, Kobo, Book Depository, Barnes and Noble, TWCS and Booktopia.
Check out Vanessa’s Blog.
My thoughts on BLOODLINES...3 stars
Detective Alicia Raymond aka Berg has been keeping secrets from everyone, including her lover, Jay O’Loughlin. Brutal rapes, murders, drug dealers, gangs, and a crime/drug lord attempting to take over Chicago combined with her secrets puts what little Berg holds dear at deadly risk.
Berg has been straining under the weight of blackmail. Now, despite her best efforts her darkest secrets have been revealed to the only one who matters to her, Jay. It was just a matter of time really but the resulting fall out is as bad as she’d feared. Her fragile happiness, that she wanted yet feared and never felt she deserved, has been shattered. The old Berg would return to the clubs seeking solace but what will the new Berg do? Has the new Berg learned the value of hope? Will she spiral back down into the abyss?
Berg’s life may be falling apart but crime doesn’t take a break. If anything Berg and Arena suspect something big and wicked behind the torture/deaths of two small time dealers. Chicago is on the brink of war with Berg, Arena, Jay, indeed the whole police and justice system of the city, in the crosshairs.
Anyone who’s read the first two in Ms. Skye’s Edge of Darkness series knows it’s violent and occasionally explicitly so. In many ways BLOODLINES is the most violent of the series. If you have a problem with violence and the darker side of the human psyche it’s not likely you’re reading this series. That being said, it’s not the violence in BLOODLINES that bothered me. Any time a crime/drug lord attempts to take over a city it’s bound to get extremely messy. It’s the personal element involving David Alexander, crime lord extraordinaire, and the events and actions stemming from that aspect that were too much for me; stretching my credulity to the breaking point. However, BLOODLINES gave some great secondary characters a chance to shine, Arena, Short, Cheney, and Smith in particular. They rose to the occasion splendidly. Over all BLOODLINES still possessed enough of what drew me to the series originally to keep me reading to the end, despite the David Alexander personal element debacle. Still, as much as it pains me to say this, I was disappointed in BLOODLINES.
My thoughts on BLOODLINES...3 stars
Detective Alicia Raymond aka Berg has been keeping secrets from everyone, including her lover, Jay O’Loughlin. Brutal rapes, murders, drug dealers, gangs, and a crime/drug lord attempting to take over Chicago combined with her secrets puts what little Berg holds dear at deadly risk.
Berg has been straining under the weight of blackmail. Now, despite her best efforts her darkest secrets have been revealed to the only one who matters to her, Jay. It was just a matter of time really but the resulting fall out is as bad as she’d feared. Her fragile happiness, that she wanted yet feared and never felt she deserved, has been shattered. The old Berg would return to the clubs seeking solace but what will the new Berg do? Has the new Berg learned the value of hope? Will she spiral back down into the abyss?
Berg’s life may be falling apart but crime doesn’t take a break. If anything Berg and Arena suspect something big and wicked behind the torture/deaths of two small time dealers. Chicago is on the brink of war with Berg, Arena, Jay, indeed the whole police and justice system of the city, in the crosshairs.
Anyone who’s read the first two in Ms. Skye’s Edge of Darkness series knows it’s violent and occasionally explicitly so. In many ways BLOODLINES is the most violent of the series. If you have a problem with violence and the darker side of the human psyche it’s not likely you’re reading this series. That being said, it’s not the violence in BLOODLINES that bothered me. Any time a crime/drug lord attempts to take over a city it’s bound to get extremely messy. It’s the personal element involving David Alexander, crime lord extraordinaire, and the events and actions stemming from that aspect that were too much for me; stretching my credulity to the breaking point. However, BLOODLINES gave some great secondary characters a chance to shine, Arena, Short, Cheney, and Smith in particular. They rose to the occasion splendidly. Over all BLOODLINES still possessed enough of what drew me to the series originally to keep me reading to the end, despite the David Alexander personal element debacle. Still, as much as it pains me to say this, I was disappointed in BLOODLINES.
~~SUMMARY~~
Following the acclaimed debut of The Enemy Inside and its sequel, Broken, comes the stunning conclusion to the ‘Edge of Darkness’ series by investigative journalist Vanessa Skye, Blood Lines. Detective Alicia “Berg” Raymond is lying. She’s lying to the Chicago Police Department, to her boyfriend, Captain Jay O’Loughlin, but most of all, she’s lying to herself—about her past, her future, and her ongoing addiction. As Berg investigates a series of brutal rapes and sinks under an ever-increasing caseload, she finds herself juggling every aspect of her life—finding justice for victims of crime, keeping her own sordid past buried from her colleagues, struggling with blackmail that threatens to push her over the edge, and protecting her lover from the details of all of it. Wrapping her damaged head around living in a state of domestic bliss she’s certain she doesn’t deserve, Berg is driven by the need for justice and a determination to stop a rapist before any more innocent lives are ravaged. But when enemies from the past threaten her present, she is once again vulnerable to the demons that have plagued her every day of her life. It’s only a matter of time before her lies unravel and the fairy tale she’s finally started believing implodes . . . but the biggest threat of all, as it turns out, is her very own bloodline. Can she save herself, and the casualties of crime, from the lurking darkness waiting to strike, or will her own mistakes drag her under—this time for good?
~~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~~
Vanessa Skye has always had a love of words and spent her school years writing poetry, speeches, and fictional essays. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in print journalism and studying psychology at Charles Sturt University, Vanessa got a job at Australia's largest publisher of regional and agricultural news and information, Rural Press, where she worked as a journalist in the central west of New South Wales for four years. Thousands of stories later, Vanessa decided to move back to Sydney and try her hand at public relations while studying for a master’s degree in communication. Skip forward a few years and Vanessa was once again joyfully studying various psychology subjects while managing a Sydney public relations firm. Enthralled with examining the motivations behind people’s actions, Vanessa realized what she really wanted to do in life was combine her love of words with her fascination for human behavior. So Vanessa quit public relations to begin the significantly more impoverished life of a professional writer. Inspired by a recurring dream, Vanessa wrote her crime fiction debut, The Enemy Inside, which challenges the concept of justice, asks if the need for vengeance sometimes justifies murder, and explores whether you can ever heal from childhood abuse. Broken is her second book in this series. In her spare time, Vanessa wrote a short story, The Piece, which was published in February 2012, by Dark Prints Press as a part of the 'One That Got Away' dark fiction anthology. Vanessa now works as a freelance writer, lives in Sydney’s northern beaches, and tries to immerse herself in salt water at least once a day.
Be sure to look for Book One-The Enemy Inside and Book Two-Broken well!
~~CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR~~
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