Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for Over the Edge: A Novel by Kathleen Bryant. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more!
Over the Edge: A Novel
by Kathleen Bryant
Over the Edge: A Novel
Traditional Mystery
Setting – Sedona, Arizona
Publisher : Crooked Lane Books (June 4, 2024)
Hardcover : 304 pages
In Sedona’s red rock canyons, a former reporter must piece together her shattered memories in time to stop a killer in this cat-and-mouse thriller, perfect for fans of CJ Box and Anne Hillerman.
After a disastrous mistake ended her career as a crime reporter, Del Cooper returns to Sedona and takes a gig with a down-on-its-luck tour company while she rebuilds her life. Her peaceful small-town escape ends when, hiking in a remote red rock canyon, she finds the broken body of a murdered man.
At first, she believes the murder is connected to a proposed land trade that will pave the way for a luxury development on the edge of town, but it seems money isn’t the killer’s only motive. As she digs deeper, she uncovers the small town’s darkest secrets, all leading her to Lee Ranch, a former filming location for Western movies. Two women disappear after Del interviews them, and rumors begin to spin faster than Sedona’s famed energy vortexes. But she knows the truth: Someone is watching her from the shadows.
My review of Over the Edge
Over the Edge by Kathleen Bryant is a book that both traditional and cozy mystery lovers will enjoy. Though it’s labeled as traditional, it’s what I’d call a cozy with a bit of an edge. The sleuth is a former crime reporter who is now working with a Jeep tour guide company in Sedona, AZ.
Del left her career as a reporter when she became involved in a story that ended in tragedy…a tragedy of her own making. Now she lives in Sedona on her late aunt’s property and is a new hire at a tour guide company. I’ve never been to Sedona, but apparently there are lots of these Jeep tour guide companies for real! Del spots the body of a local homeless man lying on a boulder in what looks like an accidental death; however, it wasn’t an accident. The man was shot.
Over the Edge is a slower paced mystery with a great deal of beautifully descriptive writing. It allowed me to feel as if I could see the events unfolding amidst the red rock canyons in Sedona. The author also added details about Sedona’s new-agey culture as well as some traditional Native American information.
It was hard for me to keep the characters straight once in a while, but I did eventually keep them straight. The main characters, Del and a couple of others are well-described. The side characters had less description, but they were important to the story.
Over the Edge’s mystery, while slow-paced, kept me guessing. There are a lot of hints and clues along the way that help lead you to the killer. It’s a clean mystery with no gruesome scenes or adult scenes. There is very little foul language, if any. I didn’t notice any as I was reading though.
Overall, I enjoyed Over the Edge and recommend it for its highly detailed setting descriptions, realistic characters, and bewildering mystery.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All views expressed are only my honest opinion.
Author Guest Post
The story behind the story
For writers, inspiration can be as sudden and illuminating as a lightning strike or as slow and persistent as an ember that needs coaxing. Writing OVER THE EDGE was a little of both. Here’s how it started.
I moved to Sedona on a hot day in early July, following a string of weekenders into town, U2’s Bono singing about one love on the radio as a desert-scented breeze blew through my Honda’s rolled-down windows. Blissed out by my new adventure, I was unaware of the dark clouds hovering over the Independence Day holiday. I’d just started unloading boxes when my landlord wandered over to warn me. A suspected killer who’d escaped from prison was spotted at Grand Canyon National Park. “Word is, he might head this way. Lock your doors.”
Certain I’d left big city worries a hundred miles behind, I locked my doors anyway. Wherever I went—the post office, the grocery store, the gas station—locals and visitors buzzed about the escaped convict. A survivalist who’d been serving four life sentences, he used the park’s holiday crowds as a cover. As detectives closed in, he kidnapped a pair of tourists, tied them up, stole their car, then disappeared into northern Arizona’s wilderness.
That was my first lesson of small-town life: News travels fast.
My second lesson arrived hard on its heels: Small towns aren’t immune to big crimes. Three days after I’d finished unpacking, a local couple spotted the escaped killer drinking water from a backyard garden hose. He was arrested, extradited, then convicted for the gruesome murder of his girlfriend.
Eventually, distracted by hiking trails and a manuscript deadline, I forgot about the incident.
Then, a few months later—on Halloween—a local woman went missing. The rumor mill spun into overdrive. Satanists. Aliens. Dark forces. Time portals. This being Sedona, a group of psychics and lightworkers joined hands to seek out information about the crime. They didn’t solve the case. Neither did detectives.
Lesson Number Three: Arizona’s deserts and forests keep their secrets a long time, sometimes forever.
This lesson crept behind me whenever I hiked into a remote canyon and hid in the backseat whenever I drove down a lonely forest road. (Sometimes, a vivid imagination isn’t helpful.) I’ve been a voracious reader ever since I could make out the words to The Cat in the Hat, and though I enjoy all genres, crime fiction is my longest love. As I explored, it became obvious: There are a lot of ways to come to grief in the wilderness, not all of them natural.
When I set down the beginnings of OVER THE EDGE, I was a freelancer writing travel books and magazine articles focused on soft adventure. I was lucky to do things I loved and call it research: hiking and backpacking, learning about archaeology and natural history, and immersing myself in everything Southwest. It didn’t leave a lot of time for writing fiction, and the novel always seemed to come in last place.
When the world paused for Covid, I felt like my wings had been clipped. That feeling lasted about ten minutes, and then it dawned on me: At last, I had the time and quiet I needed to dust off the manuscript I’d been pecking at for years. The first thing I did after re-reading it was to trash 90 percent of what I’d written, leaving a few paragraphs about a washed-up journalist, a handsome Jeep tour guide, and a dead body discovered in a remote canyon.
I escaped lockdown through memory and imagination, wandering canyon trails, breathing in the scent of saltbush and juniper, feeling the sun-warmed sandstone at my feet. The narrator of OVER THE EDGE, Del Cooper, is a crime reporter who survived a killer at the expense of her mental health. To tell her story, I stitched together intriguing details like ruins and rock art, a secret trail, an abandoned movie set. I incorporated a small-town penchant for rumors, threw in some only-in-Sedona moments, and added a stray kitten because it’s my book, after all. Adorable kitten aside, I wouldn’t describe OVER THE EDGE as cozy, yet it’s not hardcore either.
People often ask authors what’s truth and what’s invention. I think Tim O’Brien said it best: “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness.”
For twenty years, I lived in Sedona, and its beauty and contrasts still inspire me. Here, wilderness edges luxury resorts, recreationists rub elbows with artists and spiritual seekers, and mysteries are everywhere. I’ve been writing this story in my head for a long time, and now that it’s in print, I realize that one of my unconscious aims has been to make red rock country come alive for others. I’m placing my trust in Del Cooper, a newly minted Jeep guide, to lead readers on a memorable adventure.
About Kathleen Bryant
Kathleen Bryant turned her boots-first exploration of the West’s landscapes and cultures into a career as a travel writer and novelist. Her publishing credits include romance novels, travel guides, magazine articles, an award-winning children’s picture book, and a cookbook highlighting National Parks. An avid hiker and history buff, she’s led tours of ancient rock art sites, participated in field school digs, and guided yoga experiences in the red rocks of Sedona. Today, Kathleen lives with her musician husband in California, where she continues to seek out new adventures. When she’s not writing or researching her next book, you might find her on a hiking trail taking photos of wildflowers or driving down a country lane to visit a dairy farm or vineyard.
Author Links
Website: https://www.kathleenbryantwriter.com
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/KathleenBryantWriter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenbryantwriter/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kathleenbryant.bsky.social
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-bryant-a71782295
Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/3QaMdqg
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/366225.Kathleen_Bryant
Library Thing: https://www.librarything.com/author/bryantkathleen-1
Substack (newsletter): https://kathleenbryant.substack.com
Purchase Links
Amazon Kindle Amazon Hardcover Apple Books BAM! Barnes & Noble Bookshop.org Google Play Kobo Random House
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Over the Edge TOUR PARTICIPANTS
June 4 – Mystery, Thrillers, and Suspense – SPOTLIGHT
June 4 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT
June 5 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT
June 5 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 6 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 6 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
June 7 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 7 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 8 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
June 8 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
June 9 – Maureen’s Musings – SPOTLIGHT
June 9 – StoreyBook Reviews – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 10 – Ruff Drafts – AUTHOR GUEST POST
June 10 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read! – REVIEW
June 11 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
June 11 – Carla Loves To Read – REVIEW
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Thank you, Christy! I’m so glad OVER THE EDGE transported you to Sedona’s beautiful and mysterious red rock canyons. (p.s. I love watching British TV, too!)
British TV is the best! Thanks for stopping!
Sounds like a book I will really enjoy reading