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Whidbey Island may be only a ferry ride from Seattle, but it's a world apart. When Becca King arrives there, she doesn't suspect the island will become her home for the next four years. Put at risk by her ability to hear "whispers"--the thoughts of others--Becca is on the run from her stepfather, whose criminal activities she has discovered. Stranded and alone, Becca is soon befriended by Derric, a Ugandon orphan adopted by a local family; Seth, a kindhearted musician and high school dropout; Debbie, a recovering alcoholic who takes her in; and Diana, with whom Becca shares a mysterious psychic connection.
This compelling coming-of-age story, the first of an ongoing sequence of books set on Whidbey Island, has elements of mystery, the paranormal, and romance. Elizabeth George, bestselling author of the Inspector Lynley crime novels, brings her elegant style, intricate plotting, incisive characterization, and top-notch storytelling to her first book for teens.
Ms. George lives in Seattle and on Whidbey Island, the setting for The Edge of Nowhere. She says, “There’s a real enchantment to the island, and the variety of settings it affords me seems to cry out to have teenagers placed in them. . . . It asks to be ‘someone’ in a story. I only hope I’ve done it justice.”
Scratch that. She's happy now. At the time, it wasn't her best day. But the notes from her editor helped her realize that she had written the wrong book and chosen the wrong leading man. She threw out her Agatha-Christie/drawing-room-whodunit model in favor of a more modern police procedural set in the world of Scotland Yard. She promoted a minor character to her leading man, the handsome, aristocratic, Bentley-driving Thomas Lynley. And she invented a partner for him, the blue-collar, foul-mouthed, messy Barbara Havers.
"I was very lucky when the first one was rejected, because the editor explained to me why," George told the Los Angeles Times in 1999. "I had written a very Agatha Christie-esque book and she said that wasn't the way it was done. The modern crime novel doesn't have the detective call everyone into the library. It must deal with more topical crimes and the motives must be more psychological because the things you kill for are different now. Things like getting rid of a spouse who won't divorce you, or hiding an illegitimate child, or blackmail over a family scandal -- those are no longer realistic motivations."
And so, in A Great Deliverance, her first published novel, she opens with the decapitated body of a farmer, his blood-splattered daughter holding an ax, the horrified clergyman who happens on to the crime scene, and a rat feasting on the remains. Nope, not in Agatha Christie territory anymore.
George began writing as child when her mother gave her an old 1939 typewriter. When she graduated from high school, she graduated to an electric typewriter. But not until she graduated to a home computer (purchased by her husband in the 1983), did she actually try her hand at a novel. At the time, she was a schoolteacher and had been since 1974. But with the computer in front of her, she has said, it was put-up-or-shut-up time. She finished her first manuscript in 1983. But her first book wasn't published for five more years.
Though the Lynley/Havers novels are set in England -- as are the tales in her first book of short stories, 2002's I, Richard -- George is a Yank, born in Ohio and raised in Southern California. Maintaining a flat in London's South Kensington as a home base for research, George has been an Anglophile since a trip as a teenager to the United Kingdom, where she ultimately found that a British setting better served the fiction that she wanted to write. "The English tradition offers the great tapestry novel," she told Publishers Weekly in 1996, "where you have the emotional aspect of a detective's personal life, the circumstances of the crime and, most important, the atmosphere of the English countryside that functions as another character."
Readers have made her books standard features on the bestseller lists, and critics have noted the psychologically deft motives of her characters and her detailed, well-researched plotting. "A behemoth, staggering in depth and breadth, A Traitor to Memory leaves you simultaneously satisfied and longing for more. It's simply a supreme pleasure to spend time engrossed in this intense, well-written novel," the Miami Herald said in 2001. The Washington Post called 1990's Well-Schooled in Murder " a bewitching book, exasperatingly clever, and with a complex plot that must be peeled layer by layer like an onion." The Los Angeles Times once called her "the California author who does Britain as well as P.D. James." And in 1996, Entertainment Weekly placed George's eighth novel, In the Presence of the Enemy in their fiction top ten list of the year, where she kept company with John Updike, Frank McCourt, Stephen King, and Jon Krakauer.
In her mind, each book begins with the killer, the victim and the motive. She travels to London and stays at her flat there to research locales. And she writes long profiles about what drives her characters psychologically. The kick for the reader isn't necessarily whodunit but why they dun it.
"I don't mind if they know who the killer is," she has said. "I'm happy to surprise them with the psychology behind the crime. I'm interested in the dark side of man. I'm interested in taboos, and murder is the greatest taboo. Characters are fascinating in their extremity not in their happiness."
On page 900 of the rough draft for Deception on His Mind, George changed her mind about the identity of the killer.
George's ex-husband is her business manager.
Anonymous
Posted September 8, 2012
Why do some posters feel the need to write a mini bookl trlling every detail of the book? Ok, so you were given the book in exchange for an honest review. Does that mean you have to spoil it for othets? Stop with the plot spoilers already. Just state if u liked the book or not.
3 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Elizabeth George enters the Young Adult genre with her wonderfully suspenseful novel, The Edge of Nowhere. The story is equal parts mysterious and romantic to create the perfect beginning to a series centered around perception and truth.
Fourteen-year-old Becca King finds herself transported from San Diego to Whidbey Island, hiding from her sinister stepfather and waiting for her mother to find a safe sanctuary. The moment she steps foot on the remote island, the carefully laid out plans for Becca become awry and Becca has to make the best of a situation gone from unfavorable to downright unpleasant. The story's mild pace builds reader anticipation as an unexpected accident throws island residents into chaos; friends cast around blame and suspicion and secrets are subtly revealed.
The wide range of colorful characters Becca meets on Whidbey provide entertainment and a reason to get involved with the outcome of the story. George's cast of characters are engaging, either deserving sympathy and devotion or a great wind to knock sense into them. The story is told in multiple perspectives, so readers are able to feel a medley of personalities. For instance, Becca is more mature for a fourteen-year-old on the run from a criminal than expected, giving her a more relatable connection, Seth is a little lost in life but filled with good intentions, and Derric is filled with promise that readers will hope to see more of in the series' future. As there are in most books, this one features characters like Hayley and Jenn that will raise eyebrows and cause readers to question their actions, reasoning, or sanity.
George's ability to describe life on Whidbey Island, relationships, and interactions is astounding and familiar. It's not difficult to sink into the story, or become eager to crawl into Becca's shoes. The Edge of Nowhere is a novel that can be experienced by any measure of readers!
*ARC provided through LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in exchange for an honest review*
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 23, 2013
It is a great book and full of suspense, though a little confusing at times. I recomend this book to all young adults who love a good read of action and adventure!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.MMABe
Posted April 6, 2013
Am reading this eBook now. And, as usual, I do enjoy reading Elizabeth George's books. Glad I bought it. Am sure many more readers will enjoy this.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted November 10, 2012
I can see why people thought this book was a bit dumbed down. It does read like an adult novel + there's hardly any "gutter" language. Only in the dialogue was there cussing. And teens do not say "chick" as much as Mrs. George probably thinks.
Other things that probably did annoy readers was the "broken" thoughts of others. Most of the thoughts were a few words at a time and sometimes you have no idea what George is trying to hint at. And the trees. Long descriptions of trees. the mysteriousness of the island sounds pretty, bute better. if it had teen humor the book would b
However, I say that the characters + plot do have a bit of promise. Plot dragged 4 a while, but she still kept the suspense (kinda) going. the teenage drama seemed realistic.
All in all, the book keeps the reader guessing and the quick plot + characters can keep readers wanting to keep at least reading. It's not a bad book, but it does have its ups and downs.
Anonymous
Posted October 23, 2012
Having read all of Elizabeth George's book, I was surprised at this one because it is so very different from her others. I really liked it but was disappointed at the abrupt ending. It is an excellent read.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 10, 2012
Good character development but the ending was disappointing to me. Too many loose ends that were not tied up. I think this would have made it a better story. Almost like the author was setting you up for a sequel.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 19, 2012
I'm a HUGE Elizabeth George fan and thought I would enjoy this just as much as her Lynley series.....not to take away from this story, but this was written for YOUNG TEENS and caters to them. So anyone thinking you'll get something similar to her Scotland Yard series should be mindful that it's for YOUNG TEENS and it reads like it to.
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Posted December 26, 2012
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Posted February 7, 2013
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Posted November 3, 2012
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Posted September 28, 2012
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Overview
Whidbey Island may be only a ferry ride from Seattle, but it's a world apart. When Becca King arrives there, she doesn't suspect the island will become her home for the next four years. Put at risk by her ability to hear "whispers"--the thoughts of others--Becca is on the run from her stepfather, whose criminal activities she has discovered. Stranded and alone, Becca is soon befriended by Derric, a Ugandon ...