Edge of Evil
Posted on September 5th, 2009
Edge of Evil
By J. A. Jance
Avon/HarperCollins
ISBN 0-06-082841-2
Alison Reynolds has had a wonderful career as a TV news anchor in southern California. However, it seems as though the television station’s executives are looking for someone younger, and without any advance warning—immediately following her eleven o’clock news broadcast—forty-five year old Alison’s sparkling career is suddenly over. Now, while she contemplates legal action against the station because of apparent age discrimination, she bitterly realizes that she has no support or understanding at all from her egocentric husband Paul Grayson. Employing a bit of self-help therapy, Alison—with a little help from her twenty-one year old son—finds an outlet for her thoughts and emotions by launching her own on-line blog: cutlooseblog.com.
Meanwhile, in beautiful, peaceful Sedona, Arizona, where Alison’s parents own and operate the Sugarloaf Café, one of Alison’s best friends from her high school years, Reenie Barnard, has died in an apparent automobile accident during a heavy snowstorm. Although Alison had been preoccupied with her own problems, having been fired from her job and then—adding insult to injury—having learned about her husband’s unfaithfulness, she realizes she must get out of southern California and go instead go to Sedona.
Once at home in Sedona, Alison learns that everyone thinks her friend, because of a disturbing medical diagnosis, committed suicide by intentionally driving her SUV off the treacherous Schnebly Hill Road. The police, Reenie’s husband Howard Barnard, and the woman’s extended family and her friends all reluctantly agree that Reenie’s apparent suicide, as further evidenced by a note she left behind, was the act of a desperately ill and tragically despondent woman.
Alison, though, isn’t convinced. Her journalist’s instincts—and her familiarity with her friend—tell her that suicide just wouldn’t have made sense, and after certain rumors begin surfacing, Alison is convinced that someone may have had reasons for wanting Reenie dead. So, with little more than intuition and gossip to work with, Alison begins a dangerous investigation to find out what really happened to her friend.
Edge of Evil, another in a long line of superb tales from an accomplished author, proves once again that J. A. Jance—the prolific creator of eleven Joanna Brady mysteries, seventeen J. P. Beaumont mysteries, and three other novels—is a superior craftsman of exemplary novels. This provocative page-turner is embellished with a unique literary device, Alison’s blog, through which the author lets her complex protagonist reveal thoughts and emotions in ways not otherwise available in a conventional third-person narrative. The story itself, however, even without the supplemental blog text, stands out as a spell-binding thriller full of suspense, action, and surprises. Enjoy!
Tags: Advance Warning, Age Discrimination, Alison, Apparent Age, Apparent Suicide, Automobile Accident, Barnard, Clock News, Familiarity, Instincts, Insult To Injury, J A Jance, Medical Diagnosis, News Anchor, O Clock, Paul Grayson, Sedona Arizona, Snowstorm, Sugarloaf, Television Station
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