Title: Over the Edge: A Novel
Author: Brandilyn Collins
Released: May 1, 2011
Publisher: B&H Books
Pages/format: 352 (ARC)
Genre: Christian Fiction, Suspense
Source: 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.
Quick Review: This book effectively communicates the truth about Chronic Lyme Disease in the context of a heart-stopping suspense story. Over the Edge is surreptitiously educational and thoroughly entertaining.
In-Depth Review:
I approached Over the Edge with rapt anticipation and high expectations. As a Chronic Lyme patient, I am always excited when I see a new Lyme book published, and I knew this one would be different from all the others that came before it. You see, Over the Edge is the first novel about the Lyme Wars to be written by a respected (not to mention bestselling) author. This fact has ramifications for the advancement of Lyme awareness among people who are not inclined to read a tedious nonfiction book on the topic.
With all that anticipation burgeoning within me, I read the entire book within twenty-four hours of receiving it in the mail. I was not disappointed. Brandilyn succeeded brilliantly at weaving an intricate and compelling plot while simultaneously communicating the essentials of diagnosis and treatment of Chronic Lyme. In order to avoid long monotonous dialogues and monologues about the finer points of the Lyme paradigm, Collins made good use of every faction novelist’s favorite tool–the Author’s Note. There the reader can find more information on Lyme if he or she so chooses, and be pointed to other resources for further research.
Naturally I am a little biased towards any book that promotes a correct view of Chronic Lyme, so I had a couple of family members read the book as well to find out their opinion. Both blew through it and were impressed with how Brandilyn injected Lyme education into the plot without sacrificing any of the heart-stopping suspense. I’ve been studying Lyme and its treatment for four years and I find it thoroughly fascinating, but I never knew that spirochetes, Western Blots, and the Lyme Wars could be so entertaining!
Over the Edge is definitely a book you won’t want to miss out on.
Note: If you would like to learn more about Lyme Disease, visit Brandilyn’s Lyme blog.
About Brandilyn Collins:
Brandilyn is a best-selling novelist known for her trademark Seatbelt Suspense®. She is a three-time American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year Award Winner and has also received Inspirational Reader’s Choice and Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice honors. When she’s not writing, Brandilyn can be found teaching the craft of fiction at writer’s conferences. She and her family divide their time between homes in the California Bay Area and northern Idaho.
Purchase “Over the Edge” from a Parchment Girl affiliate:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
