Bloodlines
Book 3 of Edge of Darkness Series
by Vanessa Skye
Release Date: January 18 , 2015
Published by The Writers Coffee Shop
Genre: FICTION / Suspense / Dark
ISBN e-book: 978-1-61213-366-9
Available from: Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and TWCS PH
~~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.
Interview with Vanessa
- When did you first realise you wanted to write
this series?
It’s a
strange thing. I always wanted to write books, since I very, very small. But, I
thought I’d write fantasy first, as that is a genre I’ve always loved. Of
course, life got in the way and I worked in journalism and then PR.
About
eight years ago, when I was working in PR, I started to have a strange
reoccurring dream. In the dream I was writing the first chapter of a book. I
had the rough plotline worked out in my head when I was having this dream.
Well, this went on for about a year before I got tired of it and decided to
just write this first chapter down to ‘get it out of my head’. I did, and the
rest of the book followed. That ‘dream’ chapter is the first chapter of The
Enemy Inside almost word for word.
- Did you have the full picture in your head from the start or did it develop over time?
It
developed over time. With all three books, I had a rough idea of where they
were going, but as I let the characters do their thing, the storylines changed.
- I understand that you are a journalist. How has this skill helped your writing?
Discipline
and deadlines! I am very good at setting goals in terms of writing and
achieving them, as that’s how I’ve been trained. But in terms of writing,
journalism and fiction writing are completely different and I had to re-learn
how to write when I started writing fiction.
- What sort of research did you have to do to get the crime aspect of this series correct?
So much
research! I ordered textbooks galore: investigative techniques, interview
techniques, forensics, criminology, law, psychology—you name it I’ve read it!
Google helped too, of course, but I only used reputable sites. Crime fiction
involves a lot of research. It’s fiction, but it has to be plausible in the
real world, and readers of this genre are understandably picky.
- There are some really dark aspects of this novel, how did you get yourself in that dark frame of mind?
I
used my own fight with depression to inspire Berg. I’ve had depression off and
on since I was a teen, and Berg is a product of that. She is fighting
depression, although it is not until the end of the first book, The Enemy Inside, that she knows what it
is.
- Why are Bloodlines so important?
Bloodlines
are very important and very hard to escape from, as Berg discovers in this
third and final book. This is the book where she finally decides whether she’s
going to let her past rule her, or move forward on her own terms. She has to
lean that she is in charge of her own life and is not a slave to hers, or
anyone’s, past.
7. What are
you up to next?
I’ve got the
first book in my paranormal romance series being released in May 2015, Koven, which is very exciting. Plus, I’ve
just finished writing an erotic thriller, Evidence.
I’ll just keep writing because I love it.
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.
Be sure to look for Book One-The Enemy Inside and Book Two-Broken well!
~~CONNECT WITH THE AUTHOR~~
Praise for Bloodlines
"So good! As with the previous two books in this series, I absolutely loved it. The pacing was great, there was nice dry humour to lighten the very dark tone, and all the characters completed a satisfying arc from books one and two. Berg in particular is fantastic – I loved that she didn’t completely go back to her old ways when she was at her lowest, and the ending leaves us with hope for her future. " - Andrea
