Over the Edge tells the story of Senior Chief Stan Wolchonok and Lieutenant Teri Howe. There's your first hint of conflict! Lt. Howe, a helocopter pilot, has left a job in the civilian world and has gone active duty with the Navy Reserves. As a woman in a world that is dominated by men, she faces different challenges than her male counterparts. Ms. Brockmann drew me right into the story with this. Stan comes to her rescue after one particularly obnoxious officer refuses to take "No" for an answer. Stan is disturbed by what he sees and quickly begins a project to make her more assertive. When the team gets an assignment that will take them out of the area for a while, he maneuvers to have Lt. Howe be assisgned with the team.
I don't like to give away spoilers but I will tell you that the action part of this novel revolves around a commercial flight that has been highjacked out of Greece to a country known as "the pit". The highjackers don't like Americans and take a special interest in one particular passenger on the flight. The SEAL team is diverted from their training exercise to assist an FBI hostage negotiating team at the site. The WWII subplot was also amazing in this novel.
This is actually the third novel in the series but you can read it out of order. I think it might have been the first one that I read in the series too. A lot of the characters you will meet in this book will be featured heavily in later books. The story is intense and I should mention that it does describe some pretty horrific events. If rape and child abuse are triggers for you, you may want to skip this book. The events are portrayed and discussed with care but I wouldn't want you to be surprised by this.
