Over the Edge
Review: In this thrilling tale of vengeance, Over the Edge is Brandilyn Collins's fourth stand-alone novel of suspense.
A man, distraught over the death of his wife from Chronic Lyme Disease, blames noted researcher Dr. Brock McNeal, a professor at Stanford University's Department of Medicine. McNeal, an expert in tick-borne diseases, had seen the man's wife, and declared that though she may have once suffered from Lyme Disease, the illness cannot become "chronic"; the couple's insurance refused to continue paying for treatments and she ultimately died. Vowing vengeance on the doctor, the man stalks McNeal's wife, Janessa, and then surreptitiously infects her with three contaminated ticks. Though she thinks she's simply coming down the flu, he -- Janessa's stalker -- phones to tell her the truth, demanding that her husband publicly admit he was wrong and that Chronic Lyme Disease is a reality. And if McNeal doesn't, he will infect their daughter Lauren.
This captivating novel is a real page-turner. The disease is all the more horrific as it tears the McNeal family apart, at first because Brock truly believes that Lyme Disease cannot be chronic and thinks his wife is being overly dramatic when she is infected, then subsequently as the threat of their daughter being a pawn in one man's crusade to avenge the death of his wife. The pace of this novel is relentless, the suspense ramping up to greater levels as the pages fly by. Though a fictional story, there are enough facts presented in Over the Edge as a foundation to the plot that make it all the more frightening in the end.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Over the Edge.
Acknowledgment: Susan Schwartzman Public Relations provided a copy of Over the Edge for this review.
Review Copyright © 2011 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved
Location(s) referenced in Over the Edge: California
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Over the Edge by Brandilyn Collins
Publisher: B&H Books
Format: Trade Paperback
ISBN-10: 1-4336-7162-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-4336-7162-3
Publication Date: May 2011
List Price: $14.99
Synopsis (from the publisher): Janessa McNeil’s husband, Dr. Brock McNeil, a researcher and professor at Stanford University's Department of Medicine, specializes in tick-borne diseases—especially Lyme. For years he has insisted that Chronic Lyme Disease doesn't exist. Even as patients across the country are getting sicker, the committee Brock chairs is about to announce its latest findings—which will further seal the door shut for Lyme treatment.
One embittered man sets out to prove Dr. McNeil wrong by giving him a close-up view of the very disease he denies. The man infects Janessa with Lyme, then states his demand: convince her husband to publicly reverse his stand on Lyme—or their young daughter will be next.
But Janessa's marriage is already rocky. She's so sick she can hardly move or think. And her husband denies she has Lyme at all.
Welcome to the Lyme wars, Janessa.