Inside Evil(Inside Evil Series #1)
by Geoffrey Wakeling
Publication Date: March 12, 2012
Formats Available: eBook ~176 pages
Synopsis: Roberta Arlington lives in Ridgewood, a small and sleepy town on the Scottish border, where she is completely content with her life. That is, until she stumbles upon a corpse at the local boarding school and finds that her world starts to unravel into chaos.
As questions begin to emerge as to just how the victim died, Roberta discovers herself caught in a world which she never knew existed. Like a shadow hanging behind Roberta’s own life, another world hovers in the background, waiting silently until trying to break through. Roberta soon discovers that she’ll have to find all the strength she has to survive the path laid before her. -from Goodreads
Cover: I’m not quite sure what it is about the color green that evokes feelings of evil, but it does. It is usually shown through a person’s eyes, but on the cover of Inside Evil the green encompasses the entire page. The picture is of a black cat sitting the woods, not scary by itself, but when you add the bright, glowing green the woods seem ominous. Very cool trick.
My Thoughts:
“It’s happening again…”The small town of Ridgewood has a secret, one that only a select group of people know about. There is a curse, one that has been handed down from generation to generation. Every ten years there will be deaths unless a riddle is solved and to find the riddle is its own adventure. I was completely enthralled with this book. From the moment I began reading I could not tear myself away. What I first thought was a horror novel is actually a fantasy within a mystery.
Roberta, a teacher at the local boarding school, finds one of her students, Vanessa, dead in the hallway. Vanessa - a local girl who lived on campus, but her parents live in town. Her mother even runs a popular book shop. But ever since Vanessa moved to campus, things haven’t been right. Vanessa’s teachers think it may be drugs, but in reality it is something so much worse. When Vanessa is found dead strange things start to happen. Roberta isn’t quite feeling like herself anymore. She is quick to anger and at times violent, but she hasn’t any idea why. There is something inside of her. Whatever killed Vanessa is making its way into Roberta and sending her into a descending spiral of madness.
“For just the smallest second, the smile on her daughter’s face vanished and was replaced with a snarl. Lips drawn into the face of the devil, eyes hollowed and black…”While I am not usually a fan of so many viewpoints being shown, the author Geoff Wakeling does a good job of making the transitions from one character to the next. His descriptions of the small town of Ridgewood were well written and I could imagine exactly what it looked like without him being overly verbose. The entire cast of characters made this book great. From Sam the reluctant believer to Detective Karl who has been investigating the unusual deaths for over 10 years to Martha whose husband was one of the lost; we see a web spinning them all together. Each character is well-rounded and thought out. The fantastical parts of the book, while not trying to give anything away, were imaginative, original and strange.
There is a big difference between American English and British English and for those who aren’t used to reading the latter will need to be aware of the variances. For example, the spelling is different: favorite is favourite, meter is metre. The punctuation is also different; as to where I would use a period after Mr. or Mrs., British English does not, so Mrs. Peacock is Mrs Peacock. In addition, there are a few British colloquialisms that are used, but nothing that can’t be understood.
Aside from the language variations, I really enjoyed reading Inside Evil and cannot wait until he writes the second installment in the series. Anyone looking for a good mystery/fantasy to cozy up to the fire with a cup of tea or to even sit and read on the beach, Inside Evil is a great choice.
Favorite Quote: “Black shining gems bored down onto her. It was like looking directly into hell where all things were evil.”
★ ★ ★ ★ ½
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