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Description
Crafting a chilling, strategy-driven thriller packed with “nifty new tricks” (Publishers Weekly), Jeffery Deaver lifts the veil on a clandestine government agency—pitting two “ingenious” (Library Journal) opponents in a high-stakes duel of wits with deadly consequences. Behind the well-known US security apparatus—FBI, CIA, and more—lurks a top-secret agency specializing in intelligence surveillance and witness protection through its elite operatives. When Washington, DC, police detective Ryan Kessler becomes the inexplicable target of Henry Loving, a ruthless freelance lifter who uses torture, kidnapping, and family leverage, an existential threat to life itself is unleashed. Enter Corte, a senior federal protection officer—a “shepherd” driven by personal vendetta and decked with tactical brilliance and board-game inspired strategy. As Loving resurfaces six years after killing Corte’s mentor, the stage is set for a deadly match. Corte is entrusted to safeguard the Kessler family and unravel the mystery: who hired Loving, and why? With assistance from investigator Claire DuBois and FBI agent Paul Fredericks, Corte must anticipate every move of the lifter. What follows is a relentless chase, escalating psychological tension, and twisting revelations as family bonds fray under pressure. Lee’s axiom—“people will do anything to anybody, if the edge is right”—defines the deadly contest. Edge is a stand-alone government agency thriller that fuses intense psychological suspense, tactical game theory, and moral complexity. Fans of calculated espionage, modern crime thrillers, and plot-twisting suspense will relish this duel between protector and predator. Read more
Listening Length : 14 hours and 50 minutes
Author : Jeffery Deaver
Narrator : Skipp Sudduth
Publication date : November 2, 2010
Language : English
Publisher : Simon & Schuster Audio
Version : Unabridged
Program Type : Audiobook
Best Sellers Rank: #257,386 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #1,552 in Espionage Thrillers (Books) #2,312 in Espionage Thrillers (Audible Books & Originals) #3,818 in Police Procedurals (Books)
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Kindle
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time! I couldn’t put it down, and I hated when it ended. Loved all of the characters, and the surprises along the way were great. Love Jeffery Deaver books!
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2026 by Betsy Mebane
Format: Mass Market Paperback
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.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2016 by Stephanie De Pue Murphy
Format: Kindle
This is an intriguing read. Grabs you from the beginning. Full of action and many quick twists. This keeps you guessing. Main character is very likeable. I hope we see more of him
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2026 by Patricia
Format: Hardcover
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.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2010 by Richard B. Schwartz
Format: Kindle
Officer Corte’s job is to protect people being hunted, called principals. He’s tasked with getting them to a safe place. And once there, keeping them safe. His opponents, called lifters, are professional assassins or other hired nasty folks who search for an edge, a way to find out where the target is. That edge is terrifying. And the one in charge, the primary, is pulling the strings behind the scenes. This current batch of principals, a former cop, his wife and daughter, and sister-in-law, have backgrounds that make them possible targets. The authorities know one of them is the key, just not which one. The person the bad guys are seeking information from. In this case the chaser is formidable. A professional lifter Corte had previously encountered. Super smart and always seeming to be one or two steps ahead of Corte. The guy continually escapes carefully set traps. Attempting to discover the identity of the principal they’re after and why, makes Corte’s situation more complicated. Each of his protected has a feasible reason for being sought. But each of them has been cleared from Corte’s list of possibles. Who is it? Why are they being hunted? Deaver’s done it again. Edge keeps you guessing and excuse me, on the edge of your seat until you sadly reach the end. You close the book wanting more.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2022 by J. D. Webb
Format: Hardcover
ok by know you know the story line secret govt agency that protects witnesses at all costs and can act outside the law and has iunlimited resources to protect their witnesses from a super criminal "lifter" out tog et information from the witness. Keep this in mind becuase during the book we learn that this super agency knows the name and identity of the "lifter" and has for years but never bothers to learn until now that his cousin is a doctor in DC area, that his family home in is DC area and used as hideout and other impossibly stupid facts that this super agency never thought of before. while the book was fun and interesting i just could not get past these simple facts.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2010 by D. Kalata
Format: Hardcover
I've read most everything Deaver has written, and the premise of this one sounded original enough to grab my interest. I'm not particularly a fan of his Lincoln Rhyme stuff, so a novel introducing a new character automatically has my vote. Deaver has created a thrilling new hero in Corte, a "shepherd" who protects those hunted by "lifters" seeking to torture information out of them or worse. Adding to Corte's quirkiness is the fact that he is a board-game aficionado, and regularly uses the rules and strategies of winning a game in his profession. In recent years, Deaver's work as the "plot twist author" has really seemed to suffer. Much like Shyamalan who felt the need to keep throwing twists out in his films as his gimmick, Deaver's work started to become a "the killer reaches for the hero...but the hero knew it so he has backup to protect himself...but the villain knew it so he sent in a duplicate to get caught instead...but the hero knew it so he..." Understand what I mean? In "Edge", the plot twists are still there but they aren't so obvious anymore. I caught a few as they were coming up, but Deaver genuinely caught me off guard a number of times...especially with the ending. I was very pleased with this book and hope we see more from Corte in another adventure soon enough! Highly recommended!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2010 by Brian Reaves
Format: Kindle
Had to keep reading. One page leads to the next. Suspicious. Thought you had the bad guy then no you didn't. Keep on reading. Loved the ending.
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2025 by LinnyLou