Edge

Edge by Jeffery Deaver

Lifters, shepherds, primaries, and principals make up the character list in Deaver's latest thriller. Corte, a shepherd, works for a government agency responsible for protecting high-profile government witnesses (principals) against the lifters. Lifters, who have been hired by the primary, are willing to take whatever steps are necessary in order to get to the principals and extract the information they possess. They'll use physical torture if they can get to them directly, and if not, they'll kidnap and torture the principal's loved ones.

The Kessler family is Corte's latest responsibility and someone in that family has information that Henry Loving has been paid to extract. Corte has gone up against Loving before, and he knows how ruthless Loving can be and how ingenious his tactics may become.

Deaver, who is known for his roller-coaster-type plot twists upped the anti on himself with this one. For the first time he uses a first-person narrator to tell the story. That format doesn't usually lend well to surprise twists in the story, because the only perspective available to the reader is that of the narrator. Deaver accomplishes his goal masterfully. I have to admit that several times while reading the book, I could sense a plot twist coming, but that's due more to the fact that I've read most everything he's written and trying to anticipate and identify his twists has become almost a game I play while reading them. But never did I know exactly what was going to happen before it did.

Edge is a fun read for anyone who enjoys the genre. It was a refreshing departure from his Lincoln Rhyme and Katherine Dance books. There's something very satisfying for me in stand-alone books. I like the fact that they have a beginning, a middle, and a definitive end.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆