Customer Reviews

Edge of Evil

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Fired abruptly from her anchor position at a prominent news station for being `too old', Ali Reynolds returns to her home to learn that her best friend is dead - apparently by suicide, over a snowy mountain after a fatal medical diagnosis. Realizing she has no constraints on her time, Ali heads back to her hometown and her parents' Sugarloaf Café, where she grew up. Ali has another wonderful discovery on her way to her hometown - her marriage is over. Her husband has been cheating on her for a while, unbeknownst to her but known by most others. So, in the midst of a lawsuit against the station and divorce proceedings, Ali hunkers down in the house she inherited from her aunt, venting her frustrations and problems on a blog that her son has set up for her. Little does she suspect what ball her ruminations will set rolling. A good read, although I did set it down to finish others, first. I suspect there will be more stories with Ali.

J.A. Jance seems to be probing the possibility of a new series in EDGE OF EVIL. Alison Reynolds is fired from her job as a news anchor and starts a blog about her firing and her intentions to fight it. As the book develops, the blog expands to include the investigation of her best friends death, ALS and domestic violence. A large cast of characters is introduced and several loose ends are left, leaving the possibility of a sequel or more. Worthwhile reading, although lacking the detail of Jance's other series.

I am a huge fan of Jance's work, so I was surprised that I didn't like Edge of Evil very much. Jance is so good at creating characters with interesting dark sides. The characters in this book seem much better suited for an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I hope Jance will not develop the Ali Reynolds character any further. She has such a goldmine with J.P. Beaumont and Joanna Brady.

You probably already know the bare bones of the plot of Edge of Evil - a 40's something newscaster is fired, discovers her marriage is a sham and heads back to hometown Sedona, AZ, due to the suspicious death of her best friend. A large number of social issues are threaded through the basic mystery - a little cumbersome but still believeable. A good read. The characters could develop into a new series, which would be interesting too.

Ali Reynolds thought her career as a news anchor in LA was solid. Everything seemed fine until she finished up Friday night's segment and was fired. Ali also learns that her marriage is over. Chris, Ali's son, is supportive. He shows her how to set up a blog online so Ali can now tell the whole world what happened.

Of course, trouble comes in sets of three. That third bit of bad news is that Ali's best friend was diagnosed with ALS and then disappeared. The police find the body of Ali's friend and closes the file as suicide. Ali refuses to believe her friend would suicide because of receiving bad news from her doctor and
begins to nose around. But someone out there does not want Ali snooping around OR writing in her blog.

** This had a lot of potential; however, it just did not come across to me as realistic. I never came to care for Ali and her personality was almost non-existent. Since this is the first of a new series, I am hoping that the next novel will be better. **

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

There are so many things that are wrong with Edge of Evil by J.A. Jance that it is difficult to know where to start. However, let me say that it amazes me that the excellent writer who gives us the wonderful JP Beaumont series can turn around and write something as abysmal as this. Granted, her Joanna Brady series, although fun, also lacks the quality of the Beaumont series, which makes me think that maybe Jance should not be writing female characters.

Okay, first of all, within the first 10 pages I discovered two continuity errors that slipped by the editors. And I found more than a few typos throughout the book. So count sloppy editing as one strike against the book. Second, the plot itself lacks cohesion. Okay, veteran newscaster Alison Reynolds gets bounced from her job because she is too old. Her stupid husband of 7 years, who is a network bigwig, gets mad because she intends to pursue legal action against the TV station. But that's okay because she suddenly learns that her husband is a real sleazebag and has been cheating on her for years so she files for divorce.

But then her best friend from high school goes mysteriously missing and then is found dead, an apparent suicide after receiving a diagnosis of ALS. And although she hasn't seen her friend in at least 2 years, her friend's small children consider her their best friend and unburden themselves to her. And her friend's husband is also a sleazebag who was sleeping around.

But the police don't think the death of the friend is suspicious and are happy to accept it as a suicide. And in the meantime, Alison's college-aged, and too wonderful to be true son, sets her up as a blogger, and her blog immediately attracts a huge audience. The topics on her blog roam the gamut from quack treatments for ALS to spousal abuse to scumbag husbands to the stupidity of the TV station for firing her.

I could go on- I've only touched the surface of the iceberg in hitting at some of the various plot points (there are more). However, here's my down and dirty summation-- if you want to read a book that hops from one discordant plot point to another and never has any cohesion and expects you to suspend belief on every single page- hey, this is the book for you. However, if that doesn't interest you, find one of Jance's Beaumont books. Your brain will thank you.

I really don't understand all the negative reviews about this book. I found it an easy to read pleasant mystery, with a main character in midlife turmoil I wanted to sympathize with. J. A. Jance did an excellent job keeping the pace reasonably fast, while not losing the reader with extraneous characters.

As usual, J.A. Jance has provided a great piece of entertainment. Rather than using a detective or police officer as the main character, she uses an ex-anchor for an LA local news station who becomes a blogger. For those of you not familiar with the term "blogger" it is a person who keeps a journal, or log, on the web and makes regular posts. Ali, the heroine of the novel, posts her story on the web and finds that she now has contact with her audience she never experienced before - contact that can be life-threatening.
As is her practice, Ms. Jance keeps the reader involved with the people in her story by making them come alive with friends, relatives and villans. Give her story a read - you'll be surprised.

A somewhat unusual J.A. Jance read. Edge of frightening. Good writing. Hard to put down.

I enjoyed this book and hope that J.A. Jance continues to develop this character in future books. The book did get mixed reviews, but I think this character can really develop just as her other mainstay characters have.