In which trek reviews Over the Edge

I picked up Brandilyn Collins' Over the Edgethis week and once I started, I could not put it down - literally, not a figure of speech I could not put it down.

When I visit the library, I tend to make my way to the new releases bookshelf. This week, Over the Edge was there. I have read several of Collins' books in past and enjoyed them so it was natural to scoop it up and tote it home. Honestly, I didn't even read the back cover before I opened to the first page.

Although Brandilyn Collins is known as a Christian fiction author, this particular book was very light on the Christianity. It was, instead, very heavy on the suspense and medical research angles. An excellent read.

The stage is set in the prologue in which a camouflaged man enters Janessa McNeil's house as she and her 9-year old daughter, Lauren, sleep. He creeps into the master bedroom and as Jannie starts to awaken, he douses her with chloroform. Then he deposits three deer ticks, known to be carrying the Lyme spirochetes and three coinfectors, onto her head. Thus begins the denouement of his vendetta against her husband, Dr Brock McNeil, Lyme researcher. By deliberately infecting the doctor's wife, the assailant hopes to force the scientist into recanting his long-held position regarding chronic Lyme. Brock McNeil has been a leader of the camp that insists that there is no such thing as chronic Lyme and that a two to four week treatment with antibiotics is sufficient to cure the disease.

Living in a state that has had many cases of Lyme, I have known quite a few people who have contracted the disease, including a former pastor who eventually succumbed to complications of chronic Lyme at age 76. Despite all of this, I was unaware of the current controversy over treatment modalities and the denial of a large segment of the medical community to acknowledge the chronic Lyme. Over the Edge was very educational. I can't say that I will accept the author's position as unerring truth, I will say that I'm going to learn more about Lyme diagnosis and treatment: I once found a deer tick climbing up the front of my shirt.

Selected further reading on Lyme:

• The Clinical Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention of Lyme Disease, Human Granulocytic Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis: Clinical Practice Guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America


• Lyme Disease Association