At the Edge Deep in a redwood forest lies a secret that men will die to protect. Read an excerpt Dan Young, a corporate attorney, and Maria Fischer, an environmental activist and attorney, are professional rivals whose disagreements have recently threatened to spill over into personal animosity. The philosophical rift between them is profound, but their adversarial relationship is turned upside down when Dan's client sends him on a bewildering mission—to hand-deliver $500,000 in cash to Maria Fischer. Dan Young spent his youth living and working in the bitter winters and baking summers of an Oregon ranch before heading to the big city for college and law school. Now a widower with a young son, Dan serves as legal counsel for a vast corporate timber empire. Dan believes with utmost conviction that the science of forestry can help deliver the world from the effects of burning fossil fuels and at the same time be a source of continued wealth for his client. Maria Fischer grew up the daughter of a consummate businessman from whom she is estranged. After a fight with her domineering father, she left college for a cabin in Alaska, where she completed a law degree correspondence course while training huskies for a dog sled racer. It is there that she decided to give herself to preserving forests from the timber managers of the world. Now she represents an environmental group that would save the same old-growth redwood forest Dan's client plans to harvest. The timber company's plan for the $500,000? Fund the activists' effort to lobby the United States government to purchase the old-growth forest. If successful, the company gets its money without the controversy, and the environmentalists save the trees. It's a win-win situation that depends on a simple plan. But like many seemingly simple plans, it is doomed to fail. Moments after the handoff an eco-terrorist attacks the couple and steals the $500,000. Desperate to recover the money and keep the transaction secret, Maria and Dan give chase, following the thief high into the mountains. There they lose the trail but find something else instead: Deep in an ancient grove of thousand-year-old redwoods stands a modern, scientific compound protected by guard dogs and razor wire. Dan and Maria's lives will never be the same again, for they have stumbled upon something far vaster and more complex than the mere theft of money. They have uncovered the location of a secret that will yield its owner billions of dollars in revenue—a secret worth killing for. Forced into an uneasy alliance, Dan and Maria have become the hunted in a life-or-death contest. Their challenge: Reveal the secret of the compound and the men who control it or be silenced forever. But how do you fight an unknown international enemy with seemingly unlimited resources and ruthless cruelty to match? Dan and Maria know there's a link between the compound and the theft, but will they live long enough to make the connection? Their first priority is to protect Dan's son, whom Maria discovers is deeply affected by the death of his mother. Neither Nate nor Dan has been able to reconcile the loss, and Maria intuits that the solution for Nate may lie in a solution for Dan. For his part, Dan finds himself in the uncomfortable position of falling in love with his nemesis. With the ease of a master David Dun delivers a provocative and unforgettable thriller, replete with the high emotional pitch and the personal conflicts, chases, turnabouts, and revelations that readers of Necessary Evil have come to expect.  Buy At the Edge Now Back to Top