CUTTING EDGE

Author: Allison Brennan ISBN: 9780345502766 7/2009 SUSPENSE Publisher: BALLANTINE

A RADICAL WAY TO DIE When security specialist Duke Rogan’s state-of-the-art computer system fails at a controversial bio-tech firm, a raging inferno spreads, and a grotesquely charred body is discovered in the aftermath. With an extremist anti-technology group claiming responsibility, the case grows even more complex when the victim’s autopsy unexpectedly reveals that he bled to death. Heading the FBI’s domestic terrorism unit, Agent Nora English is fiercely determined to track and stop a sadistic assassin.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

CUTTING EDGE follows SUDDEN DEATH and FATAL SECRETS, and is the third and last novel of Brennan’s FBI trilogy. The main characters from the first two books, Megan Elliott and Dean Hooper, have cameos here. The heroine of this book, Nora English, is a FBI agent who has a past on the other side of the law. Duke Rogan, owner of a security company, has been interested in her for four years, but has never gotten past her defenses.

CUTTING EDGE was an excellent suspense novel with a great psychopath villain, but a weak romance. Most of the characters were multi-dimensional, especially the villain, who is clearly the hero of their own story. There is a great twist to the mystery, too.

CUTTING EDGE illustrates how scary it can be when people obsess totally about one cause to the point where nothing else matters. Add some resentments and mental illness, and very bad things may start to happen.

As a last note, once you’ve read the book, you’ll know how creepy the title is!

Heather Hiestand