Customer Reviews

Dying on the Edge

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maggie French is beautiful, sexy and a wonderful film star but she doesn't have the man of her dreams because he is married. Not to mention that Kurt Wilder is her employer. Maggie will go to any length to get him and her method of choice is voodoo. Maggie travels to the end of the earth to learn magic spells, witchery and other education from voodoo priestess but in the end she gets what she deserves. The romantic drama in this suspenseful mystery will keep you guessing and you will never imagine who did it.

Craft has stepped out of her sweet romance genre and written something totally opposite. The voodoo, spells, death, and suspense will keep you riveted to every page. The details in the magic are meticulous which means Craft has carefully done her research. Even though I don't care for the dark side of religion, I'm interested in reading all genres so I can keep my perspective fresh. I recommend this read to those that need something different in their book list as Craft really knows her voodoo and the anticipation in the story is almost heart stopping.

Note: Author sent book for review purposes to Real Page Turners.

Deltareviewer

Reviewing for Real Page Turners

Dying on the Edge centers on Detective Frank Ryman, a light-skinned black man uncertain of his own nature. Maggi French, the victim, is an actress whose fire-and-ice nature has led to her death at the hands of someone she knows. Maggi's body is found surrounded by her birds, white doves whose peace and beauty could not protect her from her own malevolence.

Ryman follows the chain of villains, victims, and hesitant friends of the actress. He is involved in the case himself, for one of the suspects is someone he's close to. The detective learns as much about himself as he does about the intense people and relationships he uncovers.

Maggi's soaring career as an actress has ignited a restless ambition that is fueled by her passionate love for a married man. She wants to use the power of her Voudou mentors to destroy his marriage and claim him as her own.

The story is set in a city that resembles New York, but its impetus comes from Haiti, where a mambo and a houngan, powerful Voudou magicians, have opposite views of their role in Maggi's life. One prevails, the other withdraws, and Maggi brings the sorceress's formula to the city and unleashes its subtle power on those around her.

Eventually, inevitably, the flames of her desire consume her and singe everyone around her, burning away the lies they've told themselves and revealing hard truths. Even those who escape with little harm are nevertheless marked, for better or worse, from having known Maggi French.

I've been a devoted follower of Francine Craft since a friend introduced me to her in 2007 by giving me 3 of her romance novels. Last month, I started having Francine withdrawal pains and realized it had been over a year since I had finished reading Designed For Passion (Kimani Romance). I was delighted to see "Dying on the Edge" was out.

Despite enduring a 26 hour airline drama for a scheduled 3 hour flight, I couldn't go to bed without starting this book at 2 a.m. I was so caught up in the "who done it" that I had to force myself to turn out the light at daybreak and go to sleep.

"Dying on the Edge" is a wonderful mystery, full of suspense and surprises. Each character is fleshed out so completely. You get a true sense of their beliefs, motives, backgrounds and life experiences. Being Catholic, I greatly appreciated the subtle weaving of religious tenets. Francine's treatment of voodoo and its gods was informative and well balanced.

I must admit that I kept waiting with each turn of the page to encounter the detailed, hot and steamy love scenes of Ms. Craft's pure romance books. I ended up agreeing with Detective Ryman's questions about his virility.

Francine's web page notes that she has 3 romances in the planning stage. Looking at the titles and subject matter, I'm already tingling, thinking I'll find in them the salacious love scenes that I loved in her last 6 romance novels. Francine Craft books always give me G-R-E-A-T pleasure and take me back to the passion of my youth. Congratulations to her on her new publishing company. G-O-O-O Francine!!!!

In the murder mystery "Dying on the Edge" readers will immediately be swept away in the authors clever way of story telling. Craft fans will not be disappointed with the author's latest literary effort.

I am a fan of Francine Craft and for any person who enjoys love stories filled with emotion sprinkled with that happily ever after in some cases will know that when picking up a Francine Craft novel you are going to have a pleasant read.

"Dying on the Edge" is slightly different because the author is now bringing more mystery to her romance pages, where this can be a risky challenge to pull off if not properly executed, but I can say that this new recipe definitely works for her. This novel had me engrossed and slightly scared but entertained nonetheless.

"Dying on the Edge" tells the tale of Maggi French a successful film star who has it all except one thing and that is her married producer Kurt Wilder. What makes this story interesting is that this isn't your typical tale of some bitter woman this story is more, it shows how far a woman will go to get the man of her dreams even if he is currently taken by another woman, this just means she has to work harder for his affection.

Which in Maggi's mind means she will resort to voodoo and not just some basic voodoo, Maggi has did her research as well did the author in the information/educating the reader of getting the perfect "love spell" but understanding the how's and why's.

What's mystery without a murder and upon Maggi's untimely demise the plot really thickens amongst those who knew her and for the detective assigned to the case. There are stories within stories.

Overall, this novel was a delight to read and readers will not and I repeat will not be disappointed and will eagerly await another installment from Francine Craft. I know I am! Job Well Done!!!

As my title states, voodoo is well known and liked by my family and me. In South Carolina where I come from, we call it hoodoo. Now, I'm not interested in putting a hex on or getting people in my power. No, I want the hexes off and my own power to me. White magic I guess you'd call it, and it has worked for me. I'm almost sixty and I've been in some trying and dangerous situations not of my making. I'm a devout Christian and I feel God is with me, but I have used spells to keep others from hurting me and doing me harm. As I said, I would never hurt others or do evil. What I use spells for is to keep evil away from me and mine.

I say all this to say this is probably why I enjoyed Dying on the Edge so much. There is only one spell given and it's a magic spell, but what I enjoyed was learning about voodoo and its place of origin: Haiti. It's not well known, but slavery in Haiti under the French yoke was fierce and no hope was forthcoming. But the African slaves were not hopeless and certainly not helpless. The French tried to force the Catholic religion on them and forbade them to worship their African gods. And in a brilliant stroke of survival, they combined those two and continued to worship. That and their truly incredible drums that could tear your heart out or soothe troubled souls.

I'm getting ahead of myself, because Edge is about Maggi French, a famous film star and her drive to have billionaire Kurt Wilder, her very much married producer, for her husband. When he begins to drift, she turns to voodoo and goes to Haiti to get the best help there is. She intends to have him, come hell or high water. This is, after all, a murder mystery, so I won't go further into this because I don't want to give the plot away. But Miss Maggi is a piece of work and about as complicated as any character I've encountered in a novel. Ditto for the men in her life and they are plural.

Just let me say that the murder is handled by an ace detective, Frank Ryman and a team that I really enjoyed reading about. Det. Ryman's life is nearly as tangled as the life of the women whose murder he investigates. A sexy lawyer girl friend who flits in and out of his life, a stunning seductive interaction with the woman whose murder he's investigating and her lover's threat to broadcast it give him plenty of trouble.

There's a lot going on in Edge and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. I've always found found Francine a smooth writer with depth and characters that feel and speak to me. I really liked this tale and I called my son while reading it and said, "Francine has written a good book." He laughed and said I always said that and I replied, "But this one is really over the top good."

My hat's off to you, Francine. I humbly accept dedication for the next one:) I really, really love your writing. Keep up the good work.

At the outset, let me say I found Dying on the Edge one hell of a read. I'm a retired Army psychologist, trained by topnotch Army psychiatrists, so when I find well done and interesting characters in a book that probes the psyches of those characters, I'm keen to read on. And I found Edge riveting.

As I read, I noted the respect and the fairness Francine displays in handling the people in Edge, and I found all kinds there. A film star, Maggi French, living on the edge of her emotions, trying to have it all just the way she wants it, and hang what anybody else wants. Likable she's not, but she sure keeps you wondering what makes her tick. The people in this book are sharp and sharply drawn. The plot moves swiftly and I found the end surprising and satisfying.

I also really liked the way Ms. Craft deals with voodoo which, as she points out is a religion dear to many people and was mostly the way Haitian slaves freed themselves from what is known to be one of the most brutal slave systems in modern history. There's a lot of info here and I got on Google and checked out more.

I read the passages about the lead detective listening to the drums one night, then read it again because it was so smoothly etched..Too much is said in the ads about Maggi French and not enough about the lead detective, Frank Ryman (wry man?) who has a life about as tangled as the woman whose death he investigates. I'm fortunate enough to be married to a woman I dearly love and so I truly sympathized with his pursuit of his wayward lawyer and sometimes lover girl friend.

I'm not much at telling about plots, but I feel this one is expertly done and others who review will tell you the specific plot. I just want to reflect on the joy I felt on finishing it, and I say joy advisedly because Edge is ultimately a sad book. But there's no nihilism here; she gives us a world of hope.

I've been a fan of Francine's for many romances and romantic suspense novels and I wanted her to keep on entertaining me with those. She chose to go deeper into the human psyche and what drives some of us. Congratulations, lady. I'm very glad you did!

Francine writes amazing romance novels but she took a different route this time with a murder mystery story! This story will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first page until the last! There are so many twists, turns, suspects and then add voodoo to the mix that just when you think you have figured out who murdered film star Maggi French, you will be wrong. So many suspects who had motive and opportunity but in the end, the one you least expect is the culprit! Wow! You did beyond good on this story Francine!

When I first started the book I was kind of leery being a New Orleans native I have heard my share of voodoo stories but this was not the entire foundation of the story and I am glad. As much as I want to tell you about this story I don't want to spoil it for you. I will tell you that the person you think is the killer just may not be. I had about five suspects and they were all wrong.

I am a fan of Ms. Craft and I must say that she did not disappoint me with this one even if I thought she did when I first started reading it. Trust me when you get about 50 pages in you are gonna be like what the heck! but keep going. There is a lot going on in this story so fight the urge to skip ahead because if you do you will be confused and will have to go back anyway.

I gave the book 5 stars because it did not treat the voodoo aspect in the typical way, also because she kept me guessing. I wish it would have gone a little deeper into some of the characters but in the end i loved it.

Dying on the Edge is a solid murder mystery with lots of great twists and turns. I'm hoping this is the start of a series; Carroll City's multi-cultural detective squad is a great cast of characters. I'm looking forward to reading another story featuring Frank, Hux, Boots, and Yee.

Actress Maggi French has been found dead in her loft. Detective Frank Ryman is under pressure from Politicians and police brass to solve the murder. As he continues his investigation we learn about Maggi's involvement in Vodoo, and an affair with prominent Carrol City Citizen and movie mogul Kurt Wilder. As Frank and his squad sifts through a menagerie of suspects, readers will have no idea who the real killer is until the last chapter!

Dying on the Edge is a gritty hard-boiled detective story which reminded me of my favorite TV police drama NYPD Blue. The multidimensional complexity of Frank Ryman reminded me so much of Andy Sipowicz from that show; I loved how Craft explored Frank's relationships with his his detectives as they worked on the case in and out of the stationhouse. Throughout the story I got to know Frank as a person and loved the character development as he interacted with his ex-wife Sofia and Jaysa, his current love interest. Frank had a lot of sensitivity, compassion patience and understanding, along with a drive to be fair, that's not something readers see in most detective characters.

I really enjoyed this story; Craft writes a solid mystery with a diverse and unique array of suspects and numerous surprises. Her research into Voodoo and police work is meticulous and blends seamlessly into the storyline. The way she describes Carroll City it' a fascinating place I'd definitely like to learn more about.

I highly recommend Dying on the Edge. It's a top notch murder mystery!

I'm a man who loves romantic fiction and I've been a long-time admirer of Francine when she wrote contemporary romances and romantic suspense. I follow her blogs and was intrigued when she wrote that she was self-publishing a cross-genre romantic voodoo mystery. Now I'm into the study of magic and all kinds of psychic phenomena. I have a degree in psycholgy and have liked Francine's body of work because it is psychologically interesting and shows a good grasp of the various principles of psychology.

I was pleasantly drawn in from the very beginning because mate-snatching is a universal pain. Maggi French is a beautiful art-eros film star, far from Hollywood, filming the specialty movies billionaire Kurt Wilder produces and well on her way to international fame. They fall deeply in love and after a time his ardor begins to cool, but she is locked into her passion to have him at any cost and she finds voodoo a useful tool.

As Miss Craft draws her, Maggi is bitterly controlling, but we also see some of the fear and deep feelings of powerlessness that drive her. Magic is felt to give the illusion of power. I don't want to give away the plot, but it's an interesting, unique one and it surely held me in thrall.

I liked that the lead detective's life is almost as tangled as Maggi's. At one point, Det. Ryman morosely reflects that it seems to him "a carnival of near crazies."

There is so much here. Maggi is white. Det. Ryman is a whiteskinned African American, as is his girl friend whom he so relentlessly pursues. The sergeant in the case is a drop-dead gorgeous darkskinned guy, much married and an ex-addict. It comes complete with homosexuals presented in a sympathetic and real way. Voodoo is treated as the religion it is. Edge is multiracial and multicultural and reflects Ms. Craft's imprint, Craft's New America Press.

This is a well-researched, well-written, well-researched and proofed book, a fact which pleased me because I've picked up quite a few self-published books that had excellent ideas but came up short in their publication.

I'm really looking forward to her next book and read this one in two sittings.