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Title: On Edge by Barbara Fister ISBN: 0-440-23751-3 Publisher: Dell Publishing Company Pub. Date: 26 November, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.50

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Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: An author to watch!
Comment: You've already read the plot reports, so I needn't repeat them. I'd rather advise you to put this on the top of your reading pile. Barbara Fister is a writer to watch. She will soon be at the top of the charts. Be the first on your block to discover her. Her protag, Slovo, is one of a kind-a refreshing consideration these days when beleagured cops seem to be so popular. Slovo is real-his baggage is genuine and he takes us on a great ride as he fights to keep his head straight. Val McDermid is one of my favorite authors-she still is-but now Barbara Fister is nudging her over.

Rating: 3
Summary: On Edge
Comment: I found it very difficult to decide how much I like this mystery. In the end, I settle for a compromise. The book has plusses: the plot is always marching forward, and not going in circles as even some classic whodunits are known to do; the protagonist, Konstantin Slovo, is so angry and impulsive he becomes a most fault-ridden hero whom it is nevertheless impossible to dislike; the book, if all else doesn't work for you, lives up to its title: The whole story is on edge. There is nothing of a non-edgy disposition on any page, unless you count Slovo's romantic downtime with Ruth, who is then quickly on edge when she finds out a distressing secret Slovo has been keeping.

So the book's greatest strength is that which is most likely to turn off many readers. It is disturbing and at times disgusting, as Slovo attempts to stop a child-murderer in Brimsport, Maine. Brace for awful descriptions of the victims' remains--though it's fair to say that the horrid nature of the deaths, and how the young victims' bodies are left, is not really presented in a gratuitous manner. And there is no actual depiction of a murder; but like in the movie Seven, it's what the local cops, the FBI, and Slovo find after the fact. The narrative also repeats descriptions of the dead a few times, as photos are mulled over, facts are reviewed, and suspects are questioned. So the sickening flavour of the story, at times, merely comes from the same gruesome details being mentioned over and over, where it concerns the three dead children.

The living population of Brimsport, at least the ones Slovo comes into contact with as he tries to prevent the impending death of a fourth child, are enough to set the rest of the narrative on edge. Brimsport was scandalized, in the 80s, by a whole raft of children coming forward to claim victimization by a hidden cult of sexual abusers. Mishandling of the cases turned the affair into a witch hunt, with loads of innocent people netted and character-stained, as interrogation made it impossible to tell when the kids were lying or speaking the truth. Repercussions from this portion of Brimsport's history have a direct effect on Slovo's current investigations...and on his safety. Paranoia in the town has re-emerged, some of Slovo's own spotty past is disseminated throughout the town (he is a very complicated character, when it comes to past indiscretions), and his life is in danger. One attack on Slovo is particularly vicious.

But he plods on, weeding through a very seamy list of suspects. Digging through personal histories, and playing the friend to some of the more disturbed Brimsporters, comes to reveal a hotbed of drug users, unfit moms, possible pedophiles, disgruntled cops with nasty attitudes, town vigilantes, and one high and mighty crusader who seems to be using Brimsport's constant woes to reinvigorate his media career (he already used his troubled son to do this, and Slovo must keep an eye on both newly-returned son, and father). With a fourth victim pending--the killer leaves gruesome clues to what he has done, or is about to do--Slovo, and some local law-enforcement, plus FBI, who are willing to give him some leeway (up until his own anger forces him to push too hard), must deal with a huge roster of edgy, edgy suspects.

This is no cosy. But the plot very ably moves from development to development without any circular motion. This isn't one of those tired novels where the detective very predictably rides a suspect merry-go-round, visiting the same suspects at predictable intervals, and making familiar wisecracks (Slovo's idea of communication, facetious and cynical or otherwise, is a bit skewed). The book moves with purpose, and has a powerful, edgy style that never lets up--though I must confess I had become a bit suspicious of the character who was eventually revealed as the killer.

Five-star edginess in a three-star mystery. Read it if you like them exceptionally gritty and disturbing, with a messed-up hero.

Rating: 5
Summary: A New Detective
Comment: In detective Konstantin Slovo, Barbara Fister has created an interesting off-center character, one whom I hope will appear in sequels. One of the joys of reading mysteries is that of observing someone who thinks differently from the way we usually do, in a way that inspires us to want to observe things more carefully (a la Sherlock Holmes) or to perceive human motivations less naively--and more realistically--than we customarily do (a la any of the hardboiled private eyes). Detective Slovo offers what I found to be a fascinating variation: he has an ability, displayed repeatedly, to adapt himself to the worldviews and emotional concerns and priorities of the people surrounding him, the better to draw out from them, as a kindred spirit, information they'd never volunteer to anyone who wasn't immediately perceived as being on their own psychological wavelength. (I wish I were as articulate in describing this as Fister is in demonstrating it!) It's something we can see him doing after he's already into the process--that is, after he's picked up on the "signs" the other character are giving him, in a way that you or I would have overlooked to begin with. This chameleon adaptation ability is the kind of thing that left me wishing, "Gee--I wish I could do that, and maybe I really _could_ if I were just more perceptive to other people's little signals"--analogous to the resolutions one forms after reading a Sherlock Holmes story. That result, to me, is the prime mark of an interesting detective--about whom I wish to read more. I am not, however, doing justice to Fister's detective in reducing him to this one remarkable trait, for this book is much more of a novel, a literary work with real insights into the dark regions of human character, than your basic "paperback mystery." (By that I mean the kind with the template back-cover blurb of "[Interesting-occupationed character minding his/her unconventional business] . . . but when . . . soon finds . . . caught up in . . . may be the next victim!") If you want that kind of story, this is not it; _On Edge_ is much deeper and grittier, and its "smell" is not that of interpolated recipes to try yourself. We're on a whole different level here, folks. Fister has a genuinely insightful imagination, capable of entering into and unfolding the internal workings of multiple different and believable characters--good, evil, and very mixed--as well as being a skillful plotter who makes all of the many character interrelationships and story surprises unfold convincingly and organically. I very much look forward to future books with the remarkable detective character, Konstantin Slovo, from this remarkable writer.