THE EDGE

            After writing some 45 historical romances, Coulter recently decided to try another genre.  She turned to the modern thriller and took on serial killers and the FBI in The Target (1998), whose husband-and-wife team, agents Lacy “Sherlock” Savich and Dillon Savich, return here.  FBI agent Floyd MacDougal lies in Bethesda Naval Hospital, recovering from the blast of a terrorist car-bomb, when he has a nightmare about his sister, medical researcher Jilly Bartlett, pushing her Porsche to 85 miles an hour, shooting over a Portland coast road cliff at midnight, and sinking into black water.  Well, Jilly had been acting strange and, secretly, hearing voices, but how can he explain hearing and seeing her 3,000 miles away in Oregon?  Four days later, Mac tries to visit Jilly in Portland, where she’s come out of a coma at last – but then she vanishes from the hospital.  Sherlock and Dillon join Mac to look for Jilly, a search that amazingly leads into Costa Rica’s rain forests, where the dangers include deadly animals and drug dealers.  But the real answer to his disappeared sister – and her vanished husband as well – lies below the edge of the cliff where Jilly flew into space.

            Far from rich characters, though the main story (shades of The Lady Vanishes) will keep the pages turning.  (Author tour)