Susan D. Reisinger

Reframing aging as "a passage of discovery and engagement", Palmer says, "Old is just another word for nothing left to lose, a time to take bigger risks on behalf of the common good." On the Brink of Everything is not a "guide to" or "handbook for" getting old. Instead, it's Palmer turning the prism of insight on his experience as a way of encouraging listeners to do the same with theirs. In elegant prose and lyrical poetry, he offers a set of meditations on the meanings of one's life - past, present, and future.

One day Kate Nash was a private investigator. She had a thriving enterprise, a supportive boyfriend, and the perfect business partner. The next day she was arrested for murder. The police showed her the film. She couldn’t tell the difference between herself and the woman on the video. She had been a detective long enough to know people spent the rest of their lives in prison on less evidence than the police had on her. She couldn’t come up with an explanation for who the person could be or where she came from. When she did found out, it changed her life forever.

Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who's dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life - he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden - and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.

Kate Nash, a St. Louis detective turned private investigator, becomes the central figure in a multiple-homicide case - one of the victims was her husband. Now her friend and old college roommate, Lizzy Smith, is missing and presumed kidnapped. As the mystery unfolds, Kate realizes whoever is behind the killings is out to destroy her and everyone close to her. Will they succeed?