Edge of Evil

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 5 DEC. 2005

At the start of this disappointing thriller from bestseller Jance (Long Time Gone), Alison Reynolds, a 45-year-old Los Angeles television news anchor, loses her job, realizes her marriage is a sham and learns that her childhood friend Reenie Bernard has disappeared after being diagnosed with ALS. Alison efficiently handles the first two problems, hiring attorneys specializing in discrimination and divorce. With her supportive college student son, Chris, she heads for Sedona, Ariz., her hometown, to visit her sympathetic parents and await news of Reenie. When Chris sets up a blog for her, Alison, usually tense and judgmental, begins revealing herself to strangers, a practice that leads to a personal threat. After Reenie's body is found, the police pronounce her a suicide; Alison disagrees and begins to investigate her friend's life. The reader learns much about age and sex discrimination, spousal abuse, the effects of catastrophic illness on families and anonymous Internet communication. The result, though, is a polemical novel with poorly developed characters and predictable situations uncharacteristic of this talented author.