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)

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.

Great Read!

I loved the story and loved the narrator. The story kept my interest....good twist and turns.

5 star story, 1 star narrator

I go through 3 audio books a week while driving. Jeffery Deaver is one of my favorite authors and I purchased Edge immediatly upon seeing it. It was only the strength of the story that kept me from giving up. The narrator, lets call him a reader as narrator would be decieving, had no emotion whatsoever. The guy at the end who says "we hope you have enjoyed the program" did 4 times the job. I'm guessing this must be a family friend of the producer, as I can't believe Mr. Deaver would treat his faithful readers so badly as to have approved this recording in advance. Go with the hard copy on this one, as the story is one of his best.

Disappointing

I like Deaver's previous work and this book may be his best work ever but it's impossible to tell due to awful narration. The story was interesting enough to finish the book but just barely. Not only is the robotic delivery of this narrator bad but as others have said in previous reviews he pronounces "weapon" as wheppon and "rear" as rare. So not only bad but also annoying. If you buy this book you will beg for Dick Hill or Scott Brick within 20 minutes of listening.

Better narrator than expected

Bruce, Nebraska:

I had read early reviews criticizing the reader, I was pleasantly surprised. The reader represented the character, a reserved gamer, who outwardly shows little emotion. This is a terrific story and the reader helps you get into the character of "Cort".

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.

Poorness of narrator hasn't been overstated

This book might have gotten four stars if it weren't for the monotonous narration. The story was good, although I'm not sure I liked it as much as the ones involving Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme. I also prefer mystery/thrillers where the reader/listener can deduce some things from clues made known. Seems like every time a new twist was added in this story we found out after the fact that Corte was tipped off by information unearthed by his protege, Claire DuBois. I also thought the games references got old and I was waiting for Henry Loving to walk on water given his ability to be one step ahead of Corte most of the time. On the bright side, I liked the characters and thought they were well developed. It sure would have been nice to listen to this story narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris or Joe Mantegna. I won't listen to a Sudduth narration again.

Is it the narrator or the writing that is boring?

I've been a Deaver fan forever , it seems and an Audible listener since the inception of Audible.com so I am accustomed to a wide variety of narration styles. This one is stilted and flat and I can't tell if it is that the narrator is used to only reading factual history texts or expense reports or if Deaver has lost his ability to write actual conversations between characters. I am only about a third of the way through the book and I"m not sure I can continue listening to the end.

Doesn't put you on "EDGE"

I'm a huge Deaver fan and have read or listened to every one of his books. This book was not what I have come to expect from a Deaver novel. The story was fine and the narrator didn't bother me as it has some reviewers. It's just that at times I thought I was listening to a David Baldacci book or maybe Vince Flynn, both authors I enjoy but not what I expect from a Deaver book. Deaver should leave the secret government operative theme to others and stick to the weird psycho killers and unique investigators who really put us on "edge" that we have come to love.

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.