If you're looking for an exciting mystery to spice things up this winter, then On The Edge may just be the book for you!
This amazing debut novel from Jane Jesmond will give you all the thrills you’ve been looking for and keep you gripped from the get-go. Not only is the book fast-paced and full of lively and relatable characters, but the setting is so brilliantly described, we feel as though we have walked into the dark and stormy moors where this story takes place.
On The Edge begins with Jen Shaw, a former adventurist and rock climber, drugged and dangling from a loose rope over a lighthouse without knowing how or why she got there.
Taking place in Cornwall, Jen’s hometown where she has had to return due to a family emergency, our protagonist is forced into trying to figure out what happened to her whilst juggling fraught family tensions and drugs, alongside a dark and dangerous past. We are taken on a journey of self-acceptance after a tragedy and embark on Jen’s journey for the truth of what happened to her.
Jesmond has managed to give every single character a brief, yet rich backstory, only adding to the depth of this mystery and keeping us guessing throughout the entirety of the book about who could be after Jen and what secrets this small coastal town holds.
The rock-climbing element to this book gives it something unique and adds that extra bit of danger; we learn about a lot of different kinds of potentially fatal things people in this hobby do (potholing, freerunning etc.) and I thought that this was really fun, as well as giving the book a unique perspective.
This debut is the first in a series and it is really a brilliant set up for the others; there is an abundance of intriguing characters and plot lines and so there are many different directions that the story could go in via future series entries.
Jen Shaw is just coming to terms with her past and learning to live with her mistakes and I am excited to see what else this author has in store for her.
“It was time to meet the person I'd become because I was going to have to find a way to live with her. And what she’d done.”
Words by Taylor Bonner for Female First, who you can find on Instagram @starlight_and_fairytails_.
MORE: Seven things you might like to know about On The Edge author, Jane Jesmond