The Enemy Within by Tim Ayliffe

Publisher's Synopsis

He heard a voice, someone calling out in the distance, followed by a loud fluttering of birds. Bailey looked up just in time to see a body falling from the sky ...

Investigative journalist John Bailey is doing his best to turn his life around after losing the woman he loved. He has a new job. He’s given up the drink. He even has a dog.

But then Federal Police raid his home with a warrant granting them unprecedented powers to take anything they want, including all his electronic devices and passwords. When Bailey protests, they threaten to put him in a prison cell.

Someone wants to stop Bailey doing what he does best – exposing the truth. He has been investigating the rise of a global white supremacist group and suspects that a notorious neo-Nazi in the United States has been directing deadly racist attacks on Sydney’s streets.

When the body of one of his key sources washes up on a nearby beach, it’s clear Bailey and anyone helping him have become targets. Bailey reaches out to a ruthless old friend – CIA veteran, Ronnie Johnson – to lure the enemy from the shadows.

An enemy who thought they were untouchable. Until now …

My Review of The Enemy Within by Tim Ayliffe

The 3rd book in the John Bailey series, The Enemy Within is more focused on the problems home in Australia than the last two were. The rise of the white supremacist movement is gaining alarming support. Bailey, now working for a brand new magazine, is putting together an in-depth piece about right wing extremism in Australia.

When Bailey attends a much-publicised talk / rally given by an American right-wing radical he is rumbled by a local supremacist who recognises him as a reporter. He manages to get out of the hall without too much damage but knows he’s put himself on the radar of a dangerous group.

Outrage soon follows when, a day or so later, he’s served with a search warrant by the AFP that gives them incredibly invasive powers to go through his home and all of his electronic devices.

“There was one other clause he found deeply disturbing…The warrant said they had the power to ‘add, copy, delete or alter’ anything they found on his electronic devices.”

It’s supposedly related to a story he wrote 11 years before in Iraq and involves information given to him by a friend who works for the Australian Federal Police, but the timing seems all wrong. Either way, it smacks of incredible overreach and Bailey responds with enough enmity to earn himself a stint in prison.

He knows he has the makings of a strong story that will put a spotlight on a scourge that is gathering strength both in Australia and the rest of the world. But when a couple of murders take place, both to people Bailey is closely acquainted to, the stakes get raised.

I found The Enemy Within to be a fast moving thriller that deals with a subject that has had increasing airtime in recent years. The conversation has moved from patriotism to nationalism and on into the far more disturbing racism and beyond and Ayliffe touches on many of the points that should be concerning to all of us.

For Bailey, the hits keep on coming to once again test his mental state of mind. More friends are killed in the course of his investigation and, as with the earlier books, his sleep is wracked with nightmares (although they don’t appear to be happening with quite the frequency as before). On top of this he seems to be prone to bouts of paralysing reflection by day. That he can continue to function normally is a mystery in itself.

It’s clear, though, that he’s settling back into a more normal life in Sydney. No more drinking, a new job and a new dog for companionship.

I was a little concerned through the first half of the book that there was no sign of the “super-sidekick” Ronnie Johnson. But as the action ramped up, the stakes became sufficiently hectic for Ronnie to come wading in, cigar stub and all.

My only criticism comes in the form - and it’s a bit of a bug-bear of mine, I admit - of the reliance on an outlandish coincidence that provides a crucial piece of information to trigger the exciting story climax. Sydney’s not the largest city in the world but, with a few million people knocking around town, the odds are pretty astronomical that the one single major threat that Bailey is tracking down is going to come so close to home. It just felt, I don’t know, lazy to me.

Other than that little bit of finger wagging from yours truly, The Enemy Within continues the John Bailey series in fine style. It does a good job of putting a spotlight on an issue that is relevant to our time. And it does so in a way that makes for some pretty compelling reading.