On Edge

November 11, 2002
Konstantin Slovo, a Chicago cop with a dark past and an even darker attitude, gets swept up in the investigation of several child murders when he visits the eerie town of Brimsport, Maine, in Fister's unsettling debut. Upon arriving in the coastal town, a vacationing Slovo is promptly handcuffed and shuffled downtown to answer questions concerning a recent abduction. He's just as quickly released when the local police chief learns he's a cop, but his subsequent discovery of the child's mutilated remains and a flare-up of a recent injury lead him to linger in town for a while. The chief's daughter, Ruth, and Hari Chakravarty, the doctor who treats him in the hospital, befriend him and fill him in on Brimsport's sordid past—which involves previous incidents of child molestation and ritualistic abuse—but this information hardly prepares him for the life-threatening investigation that follows. The brutal nature of the crimes will weed out the faint of heart, but Fister wisely refrains from sensationalizing her subject matter. Though Slovo isn't the most personable protagonist, his hard-edged personality suits the story's serious atmosphere and grim intensity.