Touched by Madness review – Dark urban fantasy with a bite

For Modern Myths, Roxan recently had the opportunity to read Touched by Madness, the first part of Nicole Leclercq’s dark fantasy series the Erin Holland Trilogy. This trilogy follows main character Erin Holland’s quests to be finally free of her past. Nicole Leclerq describes her own writings as paranormal provocative. Will Roxan be able to resist the dark temptation of this book? Find out in her Touched by Madness review!

The Erin Holland Trilogy of Dutch author Nicole Leclercq starts with Touched by Madness and is completed by the novels Touched by Darkness and Touched by Evil. It also includes the thriller prequel Touched by Obsession and the free novella Touched by Fear, which you can read on the authors website.

Erin Holland has spent half of her life in an insane asylum in England, tormented by the sadistic Dr Quirkhart. Now she is finally free and looking for answers about her haunted past.

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A haunted past

Twenty years ago Erin was the sole survivor of a bloody ritual conducted by the wicked voodoo priest Oliver Merenda. The other victims were a warlock, an ancient vampire, her mother and her half-sister. Their ghosts have haunted Erin ever since. Literally. They just won’t shut up. They even try to take over Erin’s body when she sleeps sometimes.

Now Erin has returned to America, to the small town of Deveraux, Louisiana were she was born to finally find a way of being free of her possession and the unwanted powers that plague her. But Erin is stuck in a job she cannot quit as a security guard and has been unlucky enough to catch the attention of the dangerous and powerful master vampire Dane Lynch. Who also just won’t leave her alone.

Touched by Madness review – A bloody mystery

Three of Dane’s vampires have gone missing. He coerces Erin into helping him find them in exchange for information about what happened to Erin twenty years ago. But when dangerous figures from Erin’s past threaten her, Dane finds himself trying to protect Erin. Even though he fears it will make him look weak in the eyes of both his subordinates and his rivals.

Or even worse, catch the unwanted attention of the shadowy vampire council that may call his authority over his territory in question…

Bad news

Vampires are inherently dangerous predators. That is probably one of the things that has been fascinating readers of vampire stories for centuries. I have loved many vampire stories where the vampire characters were morally grey at best. To name a few: Anne Rice’s Lestat du Lioncourt and Charlaine Harris’ Eric Northman. They are both dangerous and fascinating characters. But it is their underlying humanity that makes readers like them.

I personally did not like Dane Lynch at all. He may be pretty, but he is possessive and sadistic with few redeeming qualities in my eyes. I spent a lot of time whilst reading this novel hoping Erin Holland would be smart enough to see through his bullshit and rid herself of him one way or another. I still have high hopes for the next two books in this trilogy.

Down South

One of the reasons one of my favourite slightly evil vampires Eric Northman came to mind is that the setting of the Erin Holland series is similar to that of Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries. A series which was adapted to the tv-series True Blood. Vampires are known. This brings with it a certain responsibility for the vampires not to behave as fairytale monsters, but also brings out both the fascinated fans and the extremist human-only groups.

A major difference is that in Nicole Leclerq’s series not only vampires have come out of the coffin, but also witches, warlocks, werewolves and other werecreatures. They may still chose to hide their identities, but they are part of everyday small town American life.

Touched by Madness review – A very dark urban fantasy

I like reading urban fantasy and even better when it is a (long) series. However, I have come to the conclusion that the first book in the Erin Holland series is just a bit too dark for me. But if you like your urban fantasy stories dark and gritty, with human sacrifice and a touch of voodoo, Touched by Madness will definitely be for you.

Title: Touched by Madness
Author: Nicole Leclercq
Publisher: Ragz Books U.S.A.
ISBN: 978-19-389-8812-7