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Jeffery Deaver
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Edge: A Novel Audio CD – Abridged, November 2, 2010

by Jeffery Deaver (Author), Skipp Sudduth (Reader)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,984 ratings
See all formats and editions
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.

Crafting a chilling mind puzzle packed with “nifty new tricks” (Publishers Weekly), Jeffery Deaver lifts the curtain of a clandestine intelligence agency, pitting two “ingenious” (Library Journal) opponents in a high-stakes volley of brilliant wits and calculated risks with deadly consequences.

Henry Loving is a lifter, hired to get information by any means—including torture. His expertise is in getting an “edge” by kidnapping or threatening someone close to his principal, exerting pressure until they cave. When Washington, D.C., police detective Ryan Kessler inexplicably becomes Loving’s target, the job of keeping Kessler’s family alive falls to a senior federal protection officer named Corte, who lost a friend to Loving’s ruthless machinations six years earlier. As Corte and his team race to counter Loving, the lifter moves in on his prey—and Corte must choose between protecting his charges and exposing them to a killer in the name of long-awaited revenge.
Previous page
  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Simon & Schuster Audio
  3. Publication date
    November 2, 2010
  4. Dimensions
    5.13 x 0.8 x 5.75 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1442335351
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1442335356
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A] brain teaser of a thriller . . . Following the moves of Deaver’s ingenious plot is hard enough. The real trick is keeping up with his brilliant mind.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Along with a complex investigation and a dangerous cat-and-mouse game, Edge also boasts some high-stakes political drama . . . Swiftness and ruthlessness carry the book's momentum, keeping readers on the . . . well, check the title again. . . . Rumors are that Edge might kick off a new series for Deaver [and] Corte's combination of professionalism and duplicity offer the chance for conflicts, both internal and external, to deepen. In the meantime, Deaver has been commissioned to write the next James Bond novel—a golden opportunity he's clearly earned.”—The Washington Post

“[A] twist-filled thriller . . . In Mr. Deaver's kaleidoscope world, the odds seem to change with each turn of the page.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Jeffery Deaver is one of the most reliable and prolific writers of mysteries and thrillers. . . . And some of his books are among the best thrillers written. The Bone Collector and The Coffin Dancer are brilliant, involving and creepy to the max. The Vanished Man is brilliant although less creepy, kind of a tribute to thriller-writing, in a way. Those three are all Lincoln Rhyme mysteries—his quadriplegic forensics investigator is one of the most popular characters in mystery fiction ever created, and certainly one of the best among living writers. Deaver's latest, Edge, is not a Rhyme mystery, but it's still one of Deaver's best, a book that grabs readers on its first page and doesn't let go.”—San Jose Mercury News

“The action is a cat-and-mouse weave of clues and counter-clues. . . . This is vintage Deaver at his best.”—Toronto Globe and Mail

“Another Deaver winner.”—The Toronto Sun

“Completely and utterly thrilling. . . . Deaver has created a story where nothing is as it seems. The only thing you can be sure of is that it will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.”—Sunday Times (South Africa)

"Anyone who doubts the Ian Fleming estate's choice of perennial chart-topper Jeffery Deaver to pen the next James Bond novel need only savour his latest standalone barnburner, Edge. . . . A master of brilliantly paced misdirection, Deaver could teach a post-grad course in thriller writing."—The Winnipeg Free Press

“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 (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.”—Kirkus reviews (starred review)

From the Artist

Jeffery Deaver

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster Audio; Abridged edition (November 2, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1442335351
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1442335356
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 0.8 x 5.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 2,984 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Jeffery Deaver

Jeffery Deaver

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Jeffery Deaver is an international number-one bestselling author. His novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into over twenty-five languages. He has served two terms as president of Mystery Writers of America, and was recently named a Grand Master of MWA, whose ranks include Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Mary Higgins Clark and Walter Mosely.

The author of over forty novels, three collections of short stories and a nonfiction law book, and a lyricist of a country-western album, he’s received or been shortlisted for dozens of awards. His "The Bodies Left Behind" was named Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers association, and his Lincoln Rhyme thriller "The Broken Window" and a stand-alone, "Edge," were also nominated for that prize. "The Garden of Beasts" won the Steel Dagger from the Crime Writers Association in England. He’s also been nominated for eight Edgar Awards by the MWA.

Deaver has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention, the Strand Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award in Italy.

His book "A Maiden’s Grave" was made into an HBO movie starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel "The Bone Collector" was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. Lifetime aired an adaptation of his "The Devil’s Teardrop." NBC television recently aired the nine-episode prime-time series, "Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector."

You can find out more about Jeffery on his website www.jefferydeaver.com, Facebook page facebook.com/JefferyDeaver, and follow him on Twitter @JefferyDeaver.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,984 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Chloedoe
5.0 out of 5 stars fantastic story
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024
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So many turns and twists, I was compelled to keep reading. Loved the game theme throughout the book, board game strategy, as well as economic game theory like the prisoner’s dilemma. This book really engaged me.
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Stephanie De Pue Murphy
4.0 out of 5 stars Fast-Paced, Inventive Washington, D.C. Set Thriller
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2016
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Edge, by Jeffery Deaver, (2011). A standalone thriller by the Chicago-born New York Times bestselling author of THE BONE COLLECTOR and THE BURNING WIRE, best known for his Lincoln Rhyme and Kathryn Dance series. The author’s BONE COLLECTOR was made into a feature release, starring and Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington as Lincoln Rhyme; his A MAIDEN’S GRAVE was made into an HBO film retitled DEAD SILENCE, starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin. Deaver has also authored CARTE BLANCHE, a new James Bond novel.

This novel focuses on a secret federal agency that exists behind the well-known U.S. security organizations, such as the FBI and CIA . This anonymous agency is dedicated to intelligence surveillance a highly specialized brand of citizen protection. The book opens as Washington, D.C., police detective Ryan Kessler suddenly, inexplicably becomes the target of Henry Loving, a seasoned, ruthless kidnapper/torturer/murderer, what the agency unofficially calls a “lifter.” Loving is generally hired by interested parties to obtain information from his victims by whatever means necessary. Which in his case, although he’s a deft torturer, usually means getting an “edge” on his victim—leverage—by kidnapping or threatening family until what the agency calls the “primary,” the person the lifter is actually interested in, caves under pressure.

The job of keeping the Kessler family alive falls to Corte, protagonist/narrator, a senior federal protection officer--a position the agency unofficially calls a “shepherd.” Corte is uncompromising, devoted to protecting those in his care, a board game aficionado who applies gaming strategies to his work. For Corte, the reappearance of Loving—the man whom he’d thought several years dead, who, six years earlier, had tortured and killed his mentor—is also a chance to avenge his friend’s death. The assignment soon escalates, in addition to Corte’s duty to protect the Kessler family, into a fast-paced duel between two well matched opponents.

As he shepherds the Kesslers to a concealed safe house, Corte must anticipate Loving’s every step, knowing the lifter will surely move in on them. With the help of his mentee, investigator Claire DuBois and his longtime ally, FBI agent Paul Fredericks, Corte struggles to discover which of Kessler’s seemingly insignificant cases has triggered Loving’s interest. The team digs deeper, scrutinizing each of the family, wife Joanne, her sister Maree, Kessler’s daughter Amanda by a previous marriage: in captivity their family bonds are stretched to the breaking point. Finally, as the lifter draws closer in this prolonged cat and mouse game, Corte must choose between his duty to protect his charges or to expose them to a killer for long-awaited revenge.

Thriller Award–winner Deaver (THE BODIES LEFT BEHIND) has done quite a job here. His characters are well-rounded; his settings, cities, houses, countrysides, the Washington, D.C. and its environs setting, well-painted, his dialog, terse, believable, his story, compelling. Within this --- admittedly long, 540 page book—the writer manages to give the reader twists and turns galore, almost to the last page, as he first convinces us that each of the family, in turn, is the primary, then shows us that he/she is not.

He is an award-winning poet , journalist, -- and musician--who received a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri. He was a magazine writer, then, to gain the background needed to become a legal correspondent for The New York Times or Wall Street Journal, he enrolled at Fordham Law School. After graduation, he worked for several years at a large Wall Street firm. In his prolific writing career, Deaver has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, an Anthony award, a Gumshoe Award, and is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader's Award for Best Short Story of the Year. In 2001, he won the W.H. Smith Thumping Good Read Award for his Lincoln Rhyme novel THE EMPTY CHAIR. In 2004, he was awarded the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for GARDEN OF BEASTS and the Short Story Dagger for "The Weekender." His novels have been translated into 35 languages, have appeared on a number of bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the London Times and the Los Angeles Times.

At some earlier time in my life, I read one of Deaver’s books, didn’t much care for it, never read another, until my mystery book club decided on this one for next month. I surprised myself by liking it, finding it fast paced, inventive. Found the opening, introducing too many characters at once, particularly in the prequel chapters, hard going, might have given up on it were it not a mystery book club assignment. Also would have liked to have seen female characters other than wives, pearl-wearing personal assistants. Quite tired of books that center on naughty doings among holders of high government office. But there’s no denying it’s a good thriller. Thank you, mystery book club.
7 people found this helpful
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Richard B. Schwartz
5.0 out of 5 stars Deaver Delivers
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2010
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Edge is a gift to Deaver's fans. He knows what his readers expect and he knows how to deliver. The standard Deaver novel is a tightly-paced thriller, occupying a brief span of time and including multiple twist endings.

Edge is no exception. A standalone, it concerns a man named Corte who works as a `shepherd' in an obscure government agency. Shepherds protect `principals' from `lifters', hired criminals charged with the responsibility of extracting information from those principals. They are hired by `primaries'. You can already see where this is going--in Edge (an `edge' being something that either a shepherd or a lifter can use for advantage) Corte is shepherding the members of a family. Knowing that this is a Deaver novel, we can't be sure, until the very end, which of the family members is the actual principal and who the dark background presence, the primary who hired the lifter, actually is. We do know the identity of the lifter--a stone killer/torturer named Henry Loving, who both tortured and killed Corte's friend and mentor.

The novel is set in Washington, a city whose culture and geography Deaver knows well. The only bone I would pick concerns travel times (I lived in the D.C. area for 17 years). Corte and his friends are able to travel through the area much more quickly than I ever could. (Not quite as quickly as Jack Bauer traverses Los Angeles, but very quickly.)

The characters in Edge are superb and even though this is a rapid-fire novel of suspense there's still enough time to get to know and either like or loathe all of them. With Edge on the shelves, Deaver is completing work on his James Bond novel after which he will return to alternating between Lincoln Rhymes (even-numbered years) and Kathryn Dances (odd-numbered years). Hopefully he will have occasion to return to Corte's world at some time in the future.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff Deaver in August and attended his mini- master class at the Killer Nashville conference. In addition to being a lovely man he is a writer who is devoted to the task of pleasing his equally-devoted reading public. In Edge, Deaver (as always) delivers.

Highly recommended.
6 people found this helpful
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Anonymous
5.0 out of 5 stars Suspense from the very begining
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2013
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Deaver has done it again. I have enjoyed nearly all of his stand alone books but had heard mixed results about this one. The suspense was constant through the whole book and even though I swore I had the ending all figured out for most of the book, Deaver was able to stump me again.

I have read everything by Deaver and thought I had his trademark twists and turns all laid out and I thought I had the whole thing figured out ten chapters in. I even had alternates in case he twisted the story in a different direction. Well, he played with me though most of the story. I would get to a part and he would confirm my predictions only to rip those theories to shreds two chapters later. There were a lot of editing mistakes, general typos and wrong words, but it is easy to get past.

For anyone looking for a quick read with lots of suspense and thrills. I highly recommend this one. It is just under 400 pages but it flew by so quickly it seemed much shorter. Deaver has never let me down and is still my all time favorite author. I still think this was a great read.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Mary Schaefer
5.0 out of 5 stars quite a ride
Reviewed in Canada on October 6, 2022
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Excellent mystery, detail, suspense, characters well built, surprise ending…..it has it all, sit down and enjoy! Make sure you will not be interrupted for a while ….Great book…
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Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on August 8, 2018
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Good book.
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Mary Palmer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in Australia on April 25, 2017
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Really enjoyed the story line and twists - couldn't put it down. Characters were all well developed and really liked Corte.
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aston_muc
5.0 out of 5 stars Rhyme has ended - Corte is there!
Reviewed in Germany on July 15, 2011
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This all-new novel is by FAR the best I've ever read from Deaver. And I've read basically all by Deaver.
With this new style of writing he's arrived at the Olympus of crime-writers.
He's there where Baldacci or Sandford once were with their thrillers.
The Rhyme novels were sophisticated but lacking real thrill.

This novel is real thrill from the first to the last page and I have been saving unread pages to keep the thrill up for as long as I could.

I finally gave in, since I couldn't hold it any more.
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liz prosser
5.0 out of 5 stars Pace=terrific suspense=great ending=perfect
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2010
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I think my title says it all. I could hardly wait for this to come out and it was, as anticipated, superb. The plot is outlined above so you don't need me to go over it or spoil the ending. Let me just say that Deaver proves once again that he is without doubt the best psychological thriller writer around. I love his twists and turns that never fail to make his books page-turners. I could not stop reading until I had finished (around 4:00 am!!!) worth every minute of lost sleep. READ IT!!  Edge
27 people found this helpful
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