"A tense, thrill-a-second race against time."
Daily Mail
"[A] tidal wave of adrenaline."
People (3 1/2 out of 4 stars)
“The story is as white-knuckled and breathtaking as a season of '24.’"
Florida Times-Union
"[A] strong thriller... Gardiner really gets the adrenaline pumping."
Publishers Weekly
"Mystery fans will stay up late reading Gardiner's breathless latest."
Booklist
"[W]ildly entertaining....there are plenty of surprises as this runaway train of a novel barrels along. With its taut plotting and bleak desert setting, THE NIGHTMARE THIEF is a great summer read, the kind of book you might pull out of your beach bag in the morning and devour by dinner."
Bookreporter.com
"Gardiner writes a terrific adventure, rendering nature raw in tooth and claw and the bad guys even worse....With its pacy style, breakneck plot and zestful writing this is a thriller to recommend.”
Tangled Web
The Nightmare Thief
Autumn Reiniger expects something special for her twenty-first birthday. Daddy's already bought her the sports car, the apartment, and admission to the private college where she parties away her weekends. Now she wants excitement, and she's going to get it.
Her father signs up Autumn and five friends for an "ultimate urban reality" game: a simulated drug deal, manhunt, and jailbreak. It's a high-priced version of cops and robbers, played with fake guns and fast cars on the streets of San Francisco. Edge Adventures alerts the SFPD ahead of time that a "crime simulation" is underway, so the authorities can ignore the squealing tires and desperate cries for help.
Which is convenient for the gang of real kidnappers zeroing in on their target and a mammoth payday. Because what Daddy doesn't know is that someone has spotted his hedge fund's bulging profits, and the path to those riches runs right through Daddy's Little Girl.
Working on a case nearby is forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett and her partner Gabe Quintana. When the pair encounters a suspicious group of men carting six sullen college kids to the woods for a supposed wilderness adventure, alarm bells ring. Jo takes a closer look, and winds up with an invite to Autumn Reiniger's twenty-first birthday party - a party they may never leave.
Praise for the Jo Beckett series:
"Stephen King is absolutely right. Meg Gardiner is an astonishing writer, and The Dirty Secrets Club is a humdinger of a thriller, with shocks and twists galore. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough."
-Tess Gerritsen
"A winner in every way. The Dirty Secrets Club is nuanced and layered - and a harrowing thriller that chews up the streets of San Francisco from the high-rises to the Tenderloin. Meg Gardiner makes every one of her characters leap alive off the page, and I personally am in love with the most compelling of them all, Jo Beckett - the psychiatrist who analyzes dead people for the cops and who's willing to trade her cell phone for a cup of coffee."
-New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver
"Gardiner has created a tough, intelligent heroine who is as comfortable kicking butt and bad guys in the alleys of San Francisco as she is in a medical lab examining carbon nanotechnology and its effects on the brain."
-Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Jo Beckett may at times remind readers of Nancy Drew in her prime.... With the eye and ear of a keen reporter, [Gardiner] can capture the speech and manner of a self-important political staffer or a cynical cop, the pretentious ranting of a cyber-patriot or the e-mail venom of a deluded stalker."
-The Washington Post
"It cannot be overstated how talented Gardiner is. The action and thrills and twists never let up."
-Florida Times-Union
Copyright Meg Gardiner © 2012