My friend Tess read this and having similar tastes, passed along the recommendation. This is also my first time reading J.A. Jance, so a new-to me author. Read as an audio book. Let's start with our heroine, Alison Reynolds. The story begins with her getting canned from her TV anchor position because at 40, she's now over the hill, despite the fact that she is younger than her male counterparts. Nothing new there in TV land. Alison's husband just happens to be the Network Bigwig, and wants her to brush the incident under the carpet and move on but she's lawyer-ing up to fight it. In the same night Ali learns her best friend - whom she hasn't seen in over TWO years, has gone missing.Over the next week, her friend goes from missing to dead by suicide, she finds out her Husband has two mistresses on the side - one of them Ali's Personal Assistant. Lawyers contacted, beloved college-age son at her side, she heads off to Arizona for her friend's funeral. Where, we find out her parents want to sell the family cafe and her father breaks multiple bones in a snowboarding accident. We are introduced to the future love interest, where of course they despise each other at first sight.In all this we have the Perfect Son, who upon finding out his mother was canned, sets up a blog for her which immediately generates a huge audience, he drives her from California to Arizona, stays at the hospital with her Father, and he always tells the truth. Plotwise, I kept finding inconsistencies; for example, Ali has dinner with her Mother, Edie, and her mother declares at 8pm that it's time for her to go home and get to bed. A short while later Ali gets a call from her son that he's at the hospital with her Father. Off to the hospital she goes, and Father is in surgery when she gets there. After a while, Ali and son go out to get dinner (at 10p-11 at night?) from a KFC. Ali drops son back off at the hospital, and decides to head over to her dead friend's house with a bucket of chicken for all the mourners who'll be with her friend's Husband. It's now 11p+ at night, the house is dark, except for a porch light. There are no mourners, no extra cars in the driveway. So she decides to go knock on the door and confront him, at 11p at night, even though she hasn't seen him in over two years. Right.... The police were treating Reni's death as a suicide because they found a typed note. In a car I could have sworn blew up as it plunged over a cliff in a snowstorm. Ali, a former journalist, starts blogging. I found her posts waayyy to personal for someone who has worked in media. It's only after posting for over a week that she decides that she needs to protect the innocent and to use fake names and or alias's - now that everyone knows who is who. And then to discover that Oh! There are scary people on the internet! Hel-lo! Ali was a journalist! And there were others.But, IF you can put aside the inconsistencies prevalent throughout the story, it's a mindless enough read, especially for a commute or road trip. If you are expecting something more solidly written, perhaps pass.
This is the 2nd book I've read by this author and I’m sure I'll read more. They're entertaining enough and very clean.As usual though, there are bunch of things that totally bug me. The book is basically a multitude of small contradictions, inconsistencies, and just bone-headed moves. It makes me wonder if the author is simple or if she thinks her readers are. A few that bugged me the most are: (POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT)--Ali's friend goes off a cliff in her car; since this is a murder mystery, we of course all know that she was pushed. Apparently, the police in Sedona don't really investigate things. They just take everything at face value,. A typed, unsigned suicide note is found, with no evidence of where it was typed. The police take it as true without question. The husband is having an affair, but once the suicide note is fine, he's totally off the hook. The list of improbable and naive elements goes on and on. I mean seriously, thank heaven's Ali is there so she can save the day.--Ali gives the eulogy at her friends funeral "for Reenie's kids", Ali says. Then Ali says nothing about the kids or Reenie’s home life. All she talks about is Ali's relationship with her during high school, Ali relationship with her after high school, how Ali lost touch with her for a while but how they reconnected again, and then she touched briefly on Reenie's work. It was the most self-centered Euology I'd ever heard. No word about Reenie's kids, how much she loved them, how much she enjoyed being their mother. I thought that was super lame, but no surprise as Ali is impressively egocentric.--Ali starts blogging. Ali as a blogger is disgustingly indiscreet, posting personal details of her own life and the lives of her loved ones - details of her friend's death, her own marriage, and more. --Ali is being held against her will by a hunting knife. She's 10 feet away from her attacker and reaches into her purse with his permission for her cell phone. But instead of grabbing the gun sitting right beside the cell phone, she just grabs the cell phone, cause she might not have time to pull the gun out and aim it before he closes the 10 foot gap. Really? He’s expecting her to pull something (a cell phone) out of her purse, so if she pulls out a gun instead, unless she moves in slow motion, she can totally pull it out and aim before he even realizes that it’s not a phone. Stupidest thing I have ever heard. Small details like these drive me nuts. But apparently don't stop me from reading these books, so there you go.
What do You think about Edge Of Evil (2005)?
I read this book in less than 24 hours in total. Only put this book down to take a shower, to sleep and to go to work the next morning. After work, I continue reading it for another 30 minutes until I'm finished with it. This is my first book by J.A. (Judith Ann) Jance. This is actually just a normal mystery-thriller, but the writing flows and makes me want to keep reading it in one sitting from start to finish. The story is about a news reporter, Ali Reynolds, who were fired from her job because she's considered to old to appeal to a younger audience and is replaced by a younger female reporter. She then found out that her best friend from her home town is missing. Not only that, she also found out that her husband has been cheating on her. She then poured her heart in a blog created by her son. I like the feel of small town community that Jance creates in this book, with the character. Sugarloaf sounds like a friendly diner place that I want to be in. Such a family and friendly place. However, there are a couple of things in the story that I feel was just a bit "loose" and was not resolved. But overall, this is a really enjoyable read.
—Rosabelle Purnama
I attended a "literary tea" this spring--a library friends' fundraiser--and J.A. Jance was one of the featured authors. I'd never heard of her, but she gave an interesting talk about her development as a writer. Since I do like a good mystery (or "novel of suspense," as her books are pegged), I thought I'd give one of her books a try. Edge of Evil introduces Ali Reynolds, a woman on the downward slide from forty who's just lost her job as a high-profile LA newscaster (see: that downward slide). Things go from bad to worse (within hours) as her marriage fizzles and her best friend is found dead. Was it an accident, or did Reenie kill herself, despondent over her recent diagnosis of ALS? Ali heads home to Sedona, AZ to find out. Along the way, she starts a blog that blends her outrage over the firing with her growing concerns over what happened to Reenie.Perhaps I've read one too many of these books, because I spotted the killer pretty early on. But Edge of Evil was still an entertaining read, what with Ali's growing popularity in the blogosphere and her warm relationships with her son Chris and her parents, proprietors of Sedona's Sugarloaf Cafe. Jance did generate a couple of exciting scenes after a slow build-up--and even with that slow build, the novel had a crisp, no-nonsense tone. (Perfectly consistent with how Jance presents herself in person.)I probably wouldn't run out and buy all Jance's books--but I might pick up another one for a relaxing, low-pressure read.
—Christine
JA Jance writes beautifully about the Southwest and this book is no exception. Sedona and Flagstaff, Arizona are featured as well as hurly-burly life in LA, California. The main character Allison, is an anchor woman who loses her job to a younger woman. When she goes home to the sympatheic arms of her husband she finds he also has dumped her for a younger women. She retreats to her home town of Sedona, to heal. But she encounters an even rougher way to end a marriage. Her long time friend has been murdered leaving a less then greiving widower. Allison also seeks comfort on an internet blog.
—Mary Sue
