Nominated and shortlisted for the INSPY Awards, Mystery/Thriller category.

Brandilyn Collins is a popular and award-winning writer of faith-driven suspense novels. Her books have sold well, and she’s written a lot of them. She’s also a survivor of chronic Lyme disease. Unfortunately, by the time I read a third of the way through Over the Edge, I was fairly sure that:
a) the author had battled Lyme disease herself or with someone in her own family, and
b) the author had an ax to grind and a lesson to teach.

I have a friend who received a very delayed diagnosis of Lyme disease. She has dealt with devastating illness and much pain. I do understand that Lyme disease and its diagnosis are controversial subjects with much suffering and pain involved. I understand the temptation to use fiction as a teaching tool to make people aware of the difficulties facing those who have Lyme disease. But maybe nonfiction would be a better way to go.

In this story, Janessa McNeil, married to research doctor Brock McNeil, becomes infected with Lyme disease. Her husband, whose life research is invested in the idea the chronic Lyme disease doesn’t exist and that Lyme can be cured by a simple, short course of antibiotics, doesn’t believe that Janessa is really sick. Nor does he believe that an evil intruder infected Janessa on purpose–to get Dr. McNeil’s attention.

Yeah, it’s kind of far-fetched, and I’d have a hard time believing it, too. In fact, despite the fact that Brock, the husband, is an adulterer and and a liar, I had a sneaking sympathy for him throughout most of the book. That’s because I don’t like being preached at and emotionally manipulated in my suspense novels. It makes me cranky.

If you’re looking for a fictional tract on the trial and tribulations of chronic Lyme disease sufferers, Over the Edge is your book. If you read Over the Edge and want “the other side of the story” about the so-called “Lyme Wars”, you might try this page from the CDC. I’m not taking sides, just reporting the facts, m’am.