Edge

A Novel

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: Skipp Sudduth

Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

Behind the well-known U.S. security organizations - the FBI and CIA among them - lies a heavily guarded, anonymous government agency dedicated to intelligence surveillance and to a highly specialized brand of citizen protection.

Shock waves of alarm ripple through the clandestine agency when Washington, D.C., police detective Ryan Kessler inexplicably becomes the target of Henry Loving, a seasoned, ruthless “lifter” hired to obtain information using whatever means necessary. While Loving is deft at torture, his expertise lies in getting an “edge” on his victim—leverage—usually by kidnapping or threatening family until the “primary” caves under pressure.

The job of keeping the Kessler family alive falls to a man named Corte, a senior federal protection officer known as a “shepherd.” Uncompromising, relentlessly devoted to protecting those in his care and a passionate board game aficionado, he applies brilliant gaming strategy to his work. For Corte, the reappearance of Loving—the man who, six years earlier, had tortured and killed someone close to him—is also an opportunity to avenge his friend’s death. The assignment soon escalates into a fast-paced duel between Corte and Loving, a dangerous volley of wits and calculated risks.

As he shepherds the Kesslers to a concealed safe house, Corte must anticipate Loving’s every step as the lifter moves in on his prey, and with the help of razor-sharp investigator Claire DuBois and his longtime ally, FBI agent Paul Fredericks, pinpoint which of Kessler’s seemingly insignificant cases has triggered Loving’s return. As the team digs deeper, each of the Kesslers comes under close scrutiny, and in captivity their family bonds are stretched to the breaking point—as the lifter draws near, Corte must ultimately choose between protecting his charges and exposing them to a killer in the name of long-awaited revenge.

©2010 Jeffrey Deaver (P)2010 Simon and Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"Deaver unveils some nifty new tricks in this edge-of-your-seat thriller.... Deaver’s first first-person narrator, Corte, is an exciting new weapon in the author’s arsenal of memorable characters." ( Publishers Weekly)

"Fans of Deaver’s fiendishly clever suspensers... won’t be surprised by the nonstop deceptions, reversals, shocks and surprises, but this time they’re even more varied than usual, and, given the characters’ backgrounds, a lot more plausible. The result is his most successful thriller in years." ( Kirkus)

This book deserved a better narrator

Who at Simon and Shuster Audio thinks Skip Sudduth should narrate a Jeffrey Deaver novel? His narration of EDGE was perhaps the worst performance of an audio book that I can recall. A dull emotionless reading that reduced exciting dramatic sequences to mere third person observations... sort of like viewing a fish tank that was empty of fish. The voice of every character was virtually the same leaving the reader at a loss to determine who was speaking.
The story was full of so many twists and turns, however, that this is a Deaver offering not to be missed... another Jeffrey Deaver gem!

Great Story

Where does Edge rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

HIGH

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed the twists and turns. Guessed the ending wrong several times. Liked all the action scenes.

Thrilling book with reasonable narrator

The book was definitely exciting with nice twists and turns... not to obvious.
A great thriller all around...

The narrator has the perfect voice for the main character... the only downside is that he is not good at changing his voice to different characters... which means that you have to pay close attention when it involves conversation between multiple people or when there is a jump from one to the other person..

So... if you have no problem paying attention this is a great read.

Wheppon?

Excellent book and narrator—but why does the narrator repeatedly pronounce the word "weapon" as "wheppon" with a strong h? This odd pronunciation comes up quite frequently in this book. Aside from that weirdness, this is a good thriller.

Interesting self-talk, gaming theory; bad reading

The best about this book is that it IS a Jeffery Deaver book. There are plot twists and cleverness and bad guys out-thinking good guys out-thinking the bad guys. Deaver is a great writer, creating believable, fully-fleshed characters and complicated plots. I fully enjoyed the story.

It does not read as action-filled as a Rhyme/Sachs story, but there is plenty of action.

The "edge" of the title refers to the leverage someone can gain over another to make that person do things s/he would not ordinarily do. The bad guys find out who is important to you and threaten them so you will do what they want. That is the "edge." So here we have both good and bad guys striving to find the edge to the other so as to win out in the end. It is a tad overplayed, but still works.

What sets you back off the edge of your seat is the new area of expertise Deaver has plumbed. As in all his books, Deaver gives us an education into the topic of the story. The main character, Corte, is a board-gamer in his off time. Therefore, you will hear a LOT about old and ancient games, gaming theory and strategy. Some people will find this boring or annoying. I did not. I found it more interesting that I expected, and very informative. This information is given via introspection by Corte, so be prepared for lots of self-talk with no action.

As you have read from other reviewers, the worst of the story is the narration. His voice and tone are great for Corte and the gaming talk, but there it stops. He cannot change to do the other voices. And his unfortunate hyper-pronunciation-caused reading errors are distracting. I am a lover of pronouncing the "h" in words like "which, whale, white, whenever," etc, but can't guess wHy the reader inserts the "h" into "weapon", and "witch," and a few others. The "wheppon" is the worst since it comes up a lot. But I got over it.

I try to be forgiving of both authors and narrators because we have gotten, well, too too picky, and because I could not do as well as most of these folks. I thought it was a great story, well told, with a tremendous surprise twist at the end.

FANTASTIC!!!

Full of twists and turns that you never see coming. Totally holds your attention. A real nail biter.

Ho him—disappointing

Story did not flow easily. Too much explaining the professional roles of the characters. Almost read like a manual for “hunters”.

Narrator blues

Fortunately, this book was interesting enough to make me sit through a monotonous narrator so I don't feel that I completely wasted my money and time. I agree with another reviewer who scolded Mr. Deaver (or whomever) for choosing such a poor narrator. I can only imagine how much better the experience could have been had Dick Hill (the King!!!) or Scott Brick narrated it. I can't imagine that the author actually chose this narrator or, if he did, being satisfied with the final result.

Not your Father's Deaver

As a Deaver audio fan, I found this outing a little off his stride. Writing in the first person does present some challenges in a Jeffery Deaver type novel. If you are looking for Lincoln Rymes - this ain't it. About the second or third chapter I started to realize this it was more Sam Spade than Lincoln Rymes. It is almost an updated throw-back to the pulp detective novels of yesteryear with Deaver's unique twists. To be honest, I am only half way through it, but it is growing on me. Not the Deaver I love but one I can appreciate.
The narrator was not the best choice. He gets the job done but does not add to the novel.
If my opinion changes as a finish the audio book, I will update this posting.

Good entry by Deaver

I'm going contrarian (at least to the majority view when I read the reviews a couple months back) and saying that I liked the narrator. Yes, he was very emotionless, but that's how the character was written. I thought his delivery was very good. He did say "wheppon," which was totally bizarre, I will admit... but otherwise it was just fine.

The story was very fast paced and a little more thriller-y than most of Deaver's stuff, but still with his characteristic twists. Very enjoyable.