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# ‘The Edge of Recall’ Kristen Heitzmann • Bethany House
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/the-edge-of-recall-kristen-heitzmann-bethany-house/
- Published: 2008-09-19T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T01:01:49.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By By Dane Roberts Wans On Bookreview*

Bethany House presents us with a story that is sure to hold your interest. Labyrinths play a big part in the story. The Random House Webster’s College Dictionary defines a labyrinth as a complicated or tortuous arrangement or state of things or events. That describes the character of the labyrinth. Author Kristen Heitzmann makes good use of them as a symbol. Just how successful is your subconscious in keeping memories hidden? What does it take to bring the memories back? How dangerous would it be to have these memories surface?

Our main female character, Tessa, is a landscape architect. Her love is creating labyrinths. She has a fascination with them. Her therapist, Dr. Brenner, fears that they are injurious to her mental health.

But she doesn’t see them as such. “She stepped onto the path. Her pilgrimages to the center and back helped her grow stronger and wiser from encountering the Creator who instilled nature with patterns and rhythms reflected in the stars, in the depths of the sea, the earth and creatures. An order to all created things that could not have happened by mistakes and mutations. Not random chaos, but balance and perfection — even if much of it had been disrupted.”

Yet she has nightmares that she is struggling to understand. She has had them since her childhood. Stress brings on these nightmares. In her memories there is a monster. A monster who stands in the labyrinth.

> “Had she truly lost her mind? Dr. Brenner believed her delusional. She wished, oh, she wished she were.”

> “I’ll round up some dogs in the morning, but before I do, why don’t you tell me what really happened?”

> “It appears you had a scuffle, but frankly, your story is …”

> “Not plausible.” — And she sees it. Circle upon circle, living branches shaped like the inside of a seashell. Mesmerized, she follows the path with her eyes to the very center.” The sheriff looked her over slowly. She stared. ” He spread his hands

> “What do you mean?”

> “We search the field and surrounding woods.”

> “Her focus on labyrinths came from her dad, from that single memory, his parting gift”

What is protecting the labyrinth? What is there she needs to remember to set herself free?

Tessa has panic attacks when she is under stress. What caused them? Will she find out how to over come them? This is told in third person multiple viewpoint. You are even allowed into the head of the “guardian.” This heightens the suspense. But the main mystery remains; will Tessa ever understand her dreams?

There is a love story here also. Tessa is working side by side with a man named Smith, the architect of the house which she is to attach the labyrinth to.

She has been hurt in the past by Smith and doesn’t want to be hurt again. But when she and Smith are ambushed in the labyrinth by an assailant and Smith disappears she is accused of killing him.

There is suspense and foreboding. It reminds one of the gothic writing of centuries past. There is the old house and the guardian motif. She attempts to play fair. Yet where the villain and the FBI agent are set up in the story is hard to figure out. Heitzmann has authored 17 novels including the Christy Award winning novel “Secrets.” She lives in Colorado with her husband, Jim, and their family Keep on reading and keep on growing. Contact me at

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 19, 2008.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/091908.pdf?ref=smdp.com)