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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780312360320
ISBN number: 0312360320
Label: St. Martin's Minotaur
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: January 22, 2008
Publishing house: St. Martin's Minotaur
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 236288
Studio: St. Martin's Minotaur
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Product Description:
Jason Palmer loved being a soldier. But after returning home from Iraq with an 'other than honorable' discharge, he's finding rebuilding his life the toughest battle yet.
Elena Cruz is a talented cop, the very first woman to make Chicago's prestigious Gang Intelligence Unit. She's ready for anything the job can throw at her.
Until Jason's brother, a prominent community activist, is murdered in front of his own son.
Now, stalked by brutal men with a shadowy agenda, Jason and Elena must unravel a conspiracy stretching from the darkest alleys of the ghetto to the manicured lawns of the city's power brokers. In a world where corruption and violence are simply the cost of doing business, two damaged people are all that stand between an innocent child--and the killers who will stop at nothing to find him.
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Rated by buyers -
Good writing. The Chicago authenticity is there. Part of the plot is somewhat unbelievable,but good reading.
Rated by buyers 
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The book was a gift to my husband, he enjoyed it and gave it a 7 on a scale of 1 - 10.
Rated by buyers 
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Jason Palmer is a former soldier. A veteran of Iraq, he returned to Chicago with a less than honorable discharge and no future. He finds out, too late, that his brother is attempting to face down a criminal enterprise. Jason, his nephew, and Elena Cruz, a tough Chicago cop get to the bottom of things, encountering an alliance of corrupt city officals and gangsters.
This is an outstanding chase novel. The characters are extremely engaging. The reltionship between Jason and Elena is delightful (never mind that it develops in an impossibly brief time). The suspense is never ending. Each cliff hanger chapter end is followed by rapid, unexpected developments. The novel explores (painlessly) concepts of duty, a soldier's code of honor, the war in Iraq, and the heartache of parenting. The gang characters are chilling as well as engaging.
This is an outstanding effort. I strongly recommend the book and Sankey's earlier stand alone,"The Blalde Itself."
Rated by buyers -
Continuity - not a problem because it does not exist in this book. Flashbacks are confusing. Grover Gardner is the narrator for the audio book and is one of the best 'Readers" in the biz and he is the reason the audio book is palatable. The story jumps around, but when it is steady and in 'present day,' the excitement abounds and then another flashback - ebb and flow. Too many side stories - you just get to know who one character is and then there are several more and you try to keep track and hope you still remember him/her and what's going on so you can appreciate each story's climax/ending - that is if that ever happens. Audio Renaissance is the publisher for the audio version and demonstrates great use of background music in all the right places and Gardner, as always, is excellent. I would not bother trying to read the book and would not purchase the audio book. But if your local library has "At the City's Edge" on CD, you might want to check it out and give it a listen. I know I want to try and read or listen to another Sakey book - I haven't written him off just yet.
Rated by buyers 
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As most of the reviewers on this site have stated, I really enjoyed The Blade Itself. I saw that Sakey had a new book at the store, and was excited to get started with a fun story.
I think that the plot is primarily what brought this story down. That and the manner in which the chapters jump from one character to the subsequent in a jerky fashion. I didn't pay exact attention, but for sure, Sakey manages to jump into the persona's of at least five or six characters. By doing this along with leaving each chapter in a moment of suspense or expectation, you are left wanting to rush through the subsequent few pages until you are once again on the thread you just left. Also Sakey has a habbit of throwing in two or three page flashbacks that really have no redeeming value for the story.
So now that I have trashed one aspect of the writing style, I have to go into what really bothered me. First of all, the characters here are very forced. Sakey pulls out a burnt out soldier from Iraq, a man with a mission to help young gang kids find a road towards redemption, a female cop with the entire Chicago PD out on her case, and several gang members. I did not feel that Sakey related to any of these characters. They came across as thin and uninspired.
The story itself is out of left field, I wont give away any details because they dont become 100% clear for half the book, but its so totally silly that I lost faith in the story the further I read. The characters are not real, the story is silly, and the writing in my opinion time and again feels out of place because Sakey is trying to take over personalities that he does not understand fully.
I would stay away from this book. I think Sakey has a bright future in front of himself, but this will be one of the stories that will fall wayside and be forgotten quickly.
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