At the ripe old age of thirty, Tommy Miller is a retired cop and private investigator trying to live a quiet life in an apartment he owns above a restaurant. He is nursing a bad knee, injured during his police days, trying to decide whether accelerating the schedule of painkilling drugs will turn him into an addict. In a way he doesn’t really care since Abby Shepard, the love of his life, left him because he left her alone at night one too many times.

An old friend from the force, Spadero, takes Tommy to the crime scene. Roffman wants Tommy’s help in the investigation – for only twenty-four hours, during which he will have total amnesty. Tommy vehemently refuses until it is pointed out that one of the dead men had a four year old business card of Tommy’s and insinuations are made that he could become a suspect if he doesn’t agree to help.

Jake Bechet, ex-boxer, ex-thug has rethought the plan for his life. He has been with Gabrielle Olivo long enough now that he realizes he wishes to spend the rest of his life with her in a safe environment. Therefore he is not at all pleased when he hears from Jorge Castello, the son of a renowned mob leader demanding his cooperation in a “matter.” Bechet is quick to protest, claiming he now leads a low profile life and all his activities are above suspicion. The matter is, of course, the obscene strangling of the two men. Jake’s cooperation is assured when he realizes that Castello knows about Gabrielle and no one is beyond the reach of the mob.

Though The Water’s Edge has many thriller elements, the extensive character delineation sets it apart from the usual thriller. In addition, the plot is very complex with many little side excursions, entertaining enough in their own right, but slowing down the action of the plot significantly. In an apparent effort to carefully explain how most of the actions are possible and logical, Mr. Judson’s sentence structure is long and involved. In fact the reader can easily be confused as the first part of a sentence seems to have a tenuous relationship with the end. Judson does however respect the intelligence of his readers by giving them enough clues to figure out some things by themselves (i.e. the significance of a small star tattoo).

The characters are indeed complex individuals. They all carry a certain amount of baggage with them from difficult childhood circumstances to betrayal in love. They are a tough lot – no wimps in this book. For the most part the characters are ones to whom one can relate, even the ones that seem more bad than good.

For those not familiar with the area, it is somewhat difficult to follow the movement of the main protagonists from one place to another. Also because the action takes place during a twenty-four hour period, it is sometimes difficult to imagine all this action occurring without everyone getting whiplash. The atmosphere of the setting seems accurate. The majority of the people that live here are used to a certain standard of living.

In one scene my willing suspension of disbelief was strained. Jake and Tommy are riding in a Jeep driven by Jake, who at the time has an injured left hand. The car is rammed by another vehicle in a manner that, according to Tommy, suggests it is being driven by a cop or ex-cop. The Jeep eventually crashes and rolls over. Yet the air bags do not deploy. This seems highly unusual. In another scene, a motel key with a tag attached identifying both the motel and room number plays a prominent role. Most motels now use key cards, or at least do not identify the room number. Thieves have taught us all about this danger.

While most thrillers are peppered with lots of snappy dialogue, the characters in this novel communicate off stage or only occasionally. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it does slow down the pace of the novel quite a bit. There is a dearth of white space on most pages giving the reader more words than in most books of similar length.

Readers who prefer their thrillers complex and challenging with well developed characters will find much to like in The Water’s Edge.

--Andy Plonka