Near Enemy

“The far enemy is the one you hate, the one you're sworn to fight against. The near enemy is the one you're close to, who you trust, but shouldn't.”

Near Enemy is the sequel to Shovel Ready. You have Spademan, your garbageman turned contract killer living in post-dirty bomb NY. In this book, Spademan is attempting to figure out how to stop another potential plot against an already decimated NY. With all this going on, he still has to deal with protecting his “family” and keeping Persephone and Mark safe.

I really enjoy the writing style of these books. Sentences are very short, choppy, and to the point. It adds to the noir, hard-boil detective genre. It is action packed and fast-paced. Once I got into the book, I flew through it, plus these books are short at around 300 pages. Spademan is this dark brooding character that you cannot help but love, even though his choices are morally ambiguous.

In this installment, we find out a lot more about the dirty bomb and the initial terrorist plot. We also get a larger glimpse at how the city has moved on from the attack through the limn. The limn is this dreamlike state that allows someone to go to a different world to live their days. This book focuses on the idea of the terrorists attacking from inside, specifically from within the limn rather than overtly.

I definitely enjoyed this installment more than the first due to the faster plot. I think I connected more with stopping an imminent terrorist plot than the corrupt minister of Shovel Ready. The one thing I didn't like was that from the beginning the villain was plotted as being Muslim. While this fits with current ideas on who terrorists are, I think it perpetuates the growing mistrust of all Muslims. I think it is unjustified that from the beginning, they are targeted as the bad guys. I'm currently in a class that focuses on US policy post 9/11, so I do have a certain lens that I'm reading this through. I just think it is unfair to have the initial terrorist attack in the limn be carried out by a woman in a Burqa.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to future books by Adam Sternbergh.

I received a copy of this book through BloggingForBooks in exchange for an honest review