Edge - Softcover

Detective Bryan Kessler is a Washington, D.C., cop, sidelined to a desk years ago after an injury on the street when he was a patrol officer. His current assignment is in Financial Crimes, whose investigations are routine at best--so it's a surprise when intelligence surfaces that he's been targeted by; in underworld parlance a person who information from people, through whatever means necessary. And the lifter who's after Kessler is one of the most troubling in the business: a seasoned, though mysterious, pro, Henry Loving. He'll do whatever's necessary to get somebody to talk. He's skilled at torture (subtle, as befits his style), but he vastly prefers to get an "edge" on his target leverage by kidnapping or endangering a target's spouse, siblings, friends, co-workers and children.

While the FBI, SEC and other organizations race to learn which of Kessler's seemingly insignificant cases is making somebody so uneasy they've called in a lifter, the task of keeping the cop, his wife and daughter alive falls to our protagonist. Corte is a senior officer with a little-advertised federal agency whose sole purpose is to provides personal security for at-risk witnesses, suspects and the like. Corte is, of necessity, a loner and a mystery man, who exists outside the normal world of family, friends and society; he can't jeopardize those in his care by letting his opponents get an edge on him, either.

The story is a fast-paced duel between Corte and Loving, each trying to outthink and outmaneuver the other as the story speeds along, from safehouses to motel rooms to traps. This novel is also a Deaver first: written from Corte's perspective, it is the first Deaver thriller told in first-person.

Jeffery Deaver is the international number-one bestselling author of Roadside Crosses, The Bodies Left Behind, The Broken Window, The Sleeping Doll, The Bone Collector and twenty-one other suspense novels. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages. He has been nominated for six Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and is a three-time recipient of the Ellery Queen Reader s Award for Best Short Story of the Year. His novel The Bone Collector was made into a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington. Deaver was born in Chicago, attended the University of Missouri and received his law degree from Fordham University in New York. In 1990, he quit practicing law to write full-time.