Edge

Henry Christie has been a cop for over 30 years and he’s seen some terrible things, but nothing has prepared him for Charlie Wilder. Recently released from prison, Wilder is ready to resume his life of crime, but when he’s double crossed by his old friends, he becomes angry. Murderously so and now that his anger has been unleashed no one is safe.

A perfect noir novel of the hard boiled detective school. Darn good

Review of Edge by Nick Oldham

Charlie Wilder received an early release from his prison sentence but he was far from being close to any degree of rehabilitation.  Within a day of his release, Charlie had become the most wanted criminal in England. His downfall was that he just happened to be released from a prison that was within Henry Christie’s jurisdiction, which was finally the demise of Charlie’s crime spree.  

He wanted to quickly make his mark by abandoning petty crimes in favor of criminal activity that would make him instantly and economically stable. With the help of his brother Luke, they both decided that Charlie’s first act upon his release was to inflict serious and brutal revenge on a prison guard who had treated Charlie with disrespect during his incarceration. He then reverted to a brutal robbery, a few vicious baseball bat assaults, a punch that ended a pregnancy and the kidnapping of two policemen. Charlie was the malicious leader of a gang of four and he was out of control.

Charlie did finally receive the only justice that he was capable of fully understanding and it was delivered to him by Henry by way of a hard kick slam into the side of Charlie’s head. The nightmare of Charlie Wilder, a violent, uncooperative and threatening beast, was finally over.

This is yet another hard-hitting tale by Nick Oldham who has become quite prolific over the years. This story is not for the meek of heart and it never ever stops churning out violence and suspense. Oldham’s writing it clean and crisp and he always gets his point across with as few words as possible.

All of Nick Oldham’s books are well worth the time, some more so than others. I particularly enjoyed this one as it was quick to the point and did not have any throwaway material. This one was of his best and for that I would rate with 4 stars.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. I truly enjoyed every moment of it and look forward to Oldham’s next release. I will publish this review on the Amazon.com site as soon as the site allows me to do so.

Gordon Reiselt Albuquerque, New Mexico November 28, 2014