Edge

September 6, 2010
Thriller Award–winner Deaver (The Bodies Left Behind) unveils some nifty new tricks in this edge-of-your-seat thriller that pits two worthy antagonists against each other. Henry Loving, "a lifter," specializes in extracting information from human targets by any means necessary (i.e., torture). Corte, "a shepherd," is an agent in the Strategic Protection Department of a secret government agency normally assigned to protect high-profile targets. An intercepted communication identifies Loving as the lifter ordered to target Ryan Kessler, a Washington, D.C., metro detective. While Corte attempts to protect Kessler's family and identify the "primary," Loving's employer, Loving seeks the edge to get the information he needs to extract. Corte, a board game aficionado and game theory student, and Loving are well matched, sharing a history that ups the stakes and makes the contest personal. Deaver's first first-person narrator, Corte, is an exciting new weapon in the author's arsenal of memorable characters.

October 1, 2010

Deaver's latest nail-biter features a blank-faced hero from a shadowy federal agency whose job is to protect menaced innocents from kidnappers and killers who don't want them to be protected.

The bad news is that Henry Loving, the ruthless freelance "lifter" who specializes in using physical torture to extract information from targets who know too much, wasn't killed in Rhode Island two years ago; he's very much alive and headed for the home of D.C. Metro police detective Ryan Kessler. The good news is that Corte, the Strategic Protection Department officer assigned to protect Kessler and his family, now has a shot at revenge against Loving, who tortured and murdered his mentor Abe Fallow six years ago. Corte's first attempt to protect his charges—Ryan Kessler, his daughter Amanda, his second wife Joanne and her flaky sister Maree—by moving them to a safe house is undermined by strong opinions from the Kesslers and the first of many attacks by Loving. Taking advantage of what he's learned about the lifter from the attack, Corte, an obsessive game-player, shifts his strategy, trying to identify Loving's client by figuring out what Kessler could know that would make him so dangerous. But Kessler insists that his current cases are routine, and all the while that Corte's struggling to put the pieces together, Loving is learning more about his strategies and reactions. As each combatant seeks an edge over the other, the game between them becomes more and more wildly twisted, with so many embedded subplots, threats and distractions that you'll welcome Corte's canned profundity ("People will do anything to anybody—if the edge is right") if only because it provides moments of relief from the otherwise breakneck action.

Fans of Deaver's fiendishly clever suspensers (The Burning Wire, 2010, etc.) 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.

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Starred review from October 15, 2010

In his new psychological thriller, Deaver devises a compelling contest between two cunning opponents: Henry Loving, the contracted "lifter" who extracts information from his targeted prey to satisfy an employer, and Corte, the federal protection agent who "shepherds" informants from torturous actions (kidnapping, murder, etc.) that might provide the lifter an advantage (i.e., edge). Their tension-filled struggle revolves around a Washington, DC, police officer whose knowledge threatens the intentions of a high-ranking government official. As in his other novels (The Burning Wire; Roadside Crosses), Deaver has his ingenious protagonists use science-based logic to engineer suspenseful plot twists transpiring over a condensed period of time. Corte, serving as the narrator, consistently applies intricate game-theory analysis to anticipate the devious and evasive tactics Loving might implement within a mere four days. According to the publisher, Edge might serve as the basis for a future series. VERDICT This tightly written tale will have Deaver fans sitting on the "edge" of their seats. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/10.]--Jerry Miller, Cambridge, MA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2010
This stand-alone thriller by the author of the Lincoln Rhyme and Kathryn Dance novels introduces Corte, an officer of the Strategic Protection Department, an arm of a larger government agency tasked with protecting individuals who have been targeted for abduction or murder (among other crimes). Henry Loving, a brutal lifter who specializes in physical extraction of information, has apparently targeted a cop, Ryan Kessler. The details are shaky: Cortes people dont know why Kessler has been targeted or what information Henry Loving is after. But Corte must do everything in his power to protect Kessler. This is a slightly unusual novel for Deaver. Its a prolonged cat-and-mouse gamea familiar format to the authors fansbut the novel is relatively free of Deavers customary neck-wrenching plot reversals. Hes got a few tricks up his sleeve, but readers expecting the kind of jaw-dropping, out-of-left-field twists he specializes in might feel a bit cheated. Make no mistake: this is a fine thriller with strong characters and a compelling story. But Deaver devotees need to be forewarned not to look for any showstopping reverse pivots.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)