Edge

Edge – by Jeffery Deaver

I discovered Jeffery Deaver almost exactly 5 years ago. Since then, I’ve read 22 of his books. I mention this because it’s very easy for me to make the claim (which I have on other reviews as well) that many of Deaver’s books feel very monotonous. Perhaps, though, if I had only read 1 or 2 of his novels per year, I wouldn’t quite feel this way. I enjoyed reading this book, but I couldn’t help feeling as though I had read the same story many times before.

I was initially relieved when I discovered that this was not one of his Lincoln Rhyme (or Catherine Dance) books since I figured this might allow a bit more variety. But, Rhyme or no Rhyme – the formula is pretty much the same.

Our hero is named Corte and he is what Deaver describes as a professional “shepherd”.  Corte’s main job is protecting people (“principals”) that are in danger of being used by a “lifter”. The “lifter” is hired by a “primary” who needs the “lifter” to extract information from a “principal” by any means necessary.

  

This reminds me of those situations when a member of the mob turns against the organization and goes into the witness protection program.  The bad guys will always be looking for the guy, and efforts must be made to protect the one who turned.

So this book has Corte shuffling around a family and protecting them from a highly skilled “lifter” that Corte has worked against before.  It’s a classic cat and mouse game. In this story, we also learn that Corte has a hobby around board games, and is a master. Not games like Monopoly or Life, but the intense games where people play in clubs and shops and spend days and weeks on one game, and the players are experts on reading anything and everything about their opponents. Corte is skilled about reading other people. And we’re reminded of this often as he and his adversary are constantly trying to outguess each other.

There are many close calls, many ‘we almost got him’ moments, many plot twists, and much information is learned about the characters and their opponents – just like most other Deaver novels.  This was a good book overall, but if you’ve read a lot from this author, as I have, there really isn’t much new here. Overall, I enjoyed it, but wasn’t necessary overwhelmed. If you don’t read much Deaver, I’ll bet you’ll enjoy it much more than someone such as myself.