Nic wakes up, naked and bound in an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere. Her body is covered in cuts. Across the room her friend groans in pain. A shadow passes the window. The man with the knives is back.

Local author Kerry Buchanan has created a fabulously frantic cat-and-mouse thriller set in Northern Ireland, the first of a trilogy with Joffe books.

Normally, I’m not a thriller fan. My anxiety teeters towards unhealthy levels naturally, so being vicariously stressed for others is not usually my idea of a party.

But a thriller handled well can help reassure us that there is an order to the world and one person can truly make a difference. At the end of a great thriller we have catharsis. We are reassured in that the world continues to operate normally.

Until the author pulls the rug away again, because the one message that the best thrillers convey is that YOU ARE NEVER SAFE!

Kerry has some serious writing chops – she’s had numerous short stories published and is a regular at lots of literary events – but you can tell she had fun writing Knife Edge. Which indicates she has a grimly morbid streak in her usually sunny disposition. Which I like in a person. I often carry around my own little dark cloud, but my sunnier side usually burns off the gloom.

Kerry has created great characters, with Nic driving the plot. It was lovely to see such diversity amongst the cast, which is more reflective of the Belfast I know today. Less about the troubles, more about the slashy-slashy murder man.

Speaking of whom, the slashy-slashy murder man is a great creation. All through the book I was frantically trying to figure out who this guy was and what his motivations were. I felt like Ted Hastings searching for H and exclaiming to God, Mary, Jesus and the wee donkey at every twist and turn.

I loved it. Buy it. Kerry is great. Possibly a sociopath, but we can’t all be perfect.