Walking With Enemies book review

When you sleep with strangers, you wake up with enemies. This is always the case.

I'm writing about Waking with Enemies by Eric Jerome Dickey. Don't let the cover distract you. It's definitely meant to grab your attention.

The genre of the book is fiction, and the theme is African American literature. This is book two in the Gideon series, although we didn't even realize it was a series until we got to about the fourth book. The first book is Sleeping with Strangers, and this one continues the story of the contract killer, Gideon.

One of my absolute favorite things about this book is Tebi and Bruno. It's Tebi and Bruno forever, even though Bruno had to kill Tebi.

If you're new to the series, Gideon is the protagonist. He was raised to become a contract killer, and you'll have to read Sleeping with Strangers to get his full backstory. By the time you get to Waking with Enemies, he's still working. He gets these jobs, goes out, and carries out the hits he's hired for.

At the same time, you get Bruno's story. Bruno is out to get Gideon, but along the way he walks into a coffee shop and meets Tebi. It's love at first sight. Bruno is married, but somehow you're still cheering for them.

Tebi is this tall, beautiful woman who always wears white. There's even a whole conversation about how people in London don't really wear white, and Eric Jerome Dickey somehow makes details like that fascinating.

One thing I love about Eric Jerome Dickey is that he always gives you the background story. Why is Bruno doing this work? Because his wife is divorcing him, and he needs money. Who else gives you that kind of character development?

I'm not saying I've ever needed to become a contract killer to make money on the side, but Eric Jerome Dickey always explains why people do what they do. That's one of the reasons he's one of my favorite authors. I absolutely love his books, and the Gideon series is one of my favorites.

"Eric Jerome Dickey always goes into the background story of why people do what they do."

Gideon himself is hilarious, but what really stands out to me is the relationship between Tebi and Bruno. Bruno becomes vulnerable with her. He doesn't tell her everything, of course. He takes her to a play, excuses himself to the bathroom, spends that time torturing someone, and then comes right back to the performance.

All of that aside, he's still just a person who's attracted to another person.

They go on dates. They like each other. They hook up. It sounds corny, but Eric Jerome Dickey has an incredible way of humanizing every single character, even the contract killers.

Bruno can be on his way to track someone down after buying a gun, and then his daughter calls asking him to stop by a bookstore. Suddenly, the contract killer disappears for a moment, and you're reminded that he's still someone's father.

That's why the relationship between Bruno and Tebi is so important to me. Eric Jerome Dickey reminds us that every character has a life outside the action. They aren't just villains or heroes. They're people.

I hope I've intrigued you enough to pick up this book. If not, that's okay because I'll definitely be rereading it. I reread all of the Gideon books, and this series is especially wonderful.

So tell me, have you read any of the books in the Gideon series? Or have you read anything by Eric Jerome Dickey?

Get your copy of Waking With Enemies. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

https://youtu.be/IrlxLS5yQm0?si=ZbRTooAgmIonA3dS

Until the next book review, 

Kyla