Reviews
What they say about The Nightmare Thief
"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
What they say about The Liar's Lullaby
"A fine symmetry bookends The Liar's Lullaby. In the opening scene, Tasia McFarland, out-of-control, bipolar singer-songwriter and former wife of the US president, makes a dramatic entry on a stage on a zip-line; at the end Jo Beckett, forensic psychiatrist to San Francisco police department, body-rappels from a fifth floor window to escape a couple of crazed assassins. The first high wire act ends in carnage, the final one in rescue. Action scenes like these are full of just the kind of detailed, nail-biting drama that Gardiner does so well... Gardiner is brilliant at making the highly implausible convincing, and switches effortlessly from high tension to tenderness and heartache." -- The Guardian
"Features not one or two but three edge-of-your-seat suspense set pieces." -- Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
"Breathless suspense, slick plotting, and a cast of compelling characters make this a solid addition to Edgar-winner Gardiner's dossier of superlative thrillers." -- Booklist, starred review.
“Gardiner depicts an America corrupted by the cult of celebrity, deranged mass media and a toxic blogosphere. Zesty, smart.” -- Sunday Times
"Jo Beckett... may remind readers of Nancy Drew in her prime... The secrets of Tasia's life lead Jo to the truth of the singer's death, and Gardiner charts that course skillfully. With the eye and ear of a keen reporter, she 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." -- Washington Post
“Gardiner… proves herself wickedly adept with plot twists and turns... Plot twists and mounting suspense get people to race from the start of a book to the end, and complex characterizations and dynamic situations keep them coming back. Thanks to Meg Gardiner’s skill at both, her readers will be anxiously waiting, eager to devour whatever this talented writer comes up with next.” -- Bookreporter.com
“Gardiner, true to form, has delivered an original premise, developed it to a tee and populated it with believable and morally complex characters. Jo Beckett, a well-drawn protagonist in her own right, is aided by a strong supporting cast: wisecracking cop Amy Tang; hunky boyfriend Gabe Quintana; and, for a bit of comic relief, neighbor Ferd the nerd, with his pet monkey, the mischievously riotous Mr. Peebles.” -- BookPage
"Stephen King, Tess Gerritsen and Jeffrey Deaver all rave about her, and Meg Gardiner’s The Liar’s Lullaby doesn’t disappoint." -- Sunday Herald, Hottest Summer Reads selection
A USA Today "Hot summer books" selection.
What they say about The Memory Collector
“Riveting… a book you just can’t put down… Gardiner engineers more turns than a winding road, holding the reader’s attention while pitching a steady stream of curve balls that keeps the plot from unraveling down to the last few pages. The Memory Collector is a first-class thriller with nonstop action, including an airport car chase that will have you glued to the pages.” Chicago Sun-Times
“Meg Gardiner captivates with her latest… an exceptional follow up to her first Beckett novel, The Dirty Secrets Club.” Carolyn Lessard, Associated Press
“A superb, high-octane, white-knuckle thriller… Yeah, it’s that good!” Bookgasm
“Gardiner skillfully balances cutting-edge science and gripping suspense in this believable thriller about a technology that is capable of destroying the brain’s ability to store short-term memories.” Minneapolis Star-Tribune
… and The Dirty Secrets Club
“A crackerjack thriller.” Miami Herald
“Hitchcockian scenes of suspense will rock even the most jaded thriller reader.” USA Today
“Steeped in nonstop action, psychological terror and an evocative use of the San Francisco background, The Dirty Secrets Club brims with surprises and unpredictable twists.” Chicago Tribune
“Not only is The Dirty Secrets Club full of thrills, spills and danger, with a suitably gripping climax, but the whole caboodle is tied together at the end with a most impressive grasp of plotting, wrong-footing the reader not once but three or four times. Lara Croft, eat your heart out. This novel is totally filmic, featuring a lead female role an actress might well kill for.” Philadelphia Inquirer
“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. Author 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 cellphone for a cup of coffee.” Jeffery Deaver
“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
“Stephen King was right about Meg Gardiner. The Dirty Secrets Club, featuring forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett (she performs “psychological autopsies” to determine if a victim’s death was natural, suicide, or homicide) is a smart and thrilling ride.” Omnivoracious.com (Amazon.com)
“Gardiner should win new fans on this side of the Atlantic with this adrenaline-filled thriller.” Publishers Weekly
… and Kill Chain
“Gardiner is brilliant at making the over-the-top seem utterly convincing. Her heroine, Evan Delaney, is a paragon for our times: tough, funny, clever, brave, tireless and compassionate… The pace and inventiveness never flag, and the climax… is both nailbiting and moving. But the brilliant writing is what puts this thriller way ahead of the competition… Reading the fifth Evan Delaney book first is not a problem, but you’ll probably want to go back and read the others. Intelligent escapism at its best.” Joanna Hines, The Guardian
“The feisty Evan Delaney makes a welcome return in Kill Chain… As ever, the plot is pacy and tight.” Sunday Express
“A profound, multi-faceted, exhilarating novel.” Mysterious Reviews
“A rattling good read.” News of the World
“If you like Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich you ought to have discovered Gardiner by now. She hard boils her American crime with the best of them… Brilliant.” Peterborough Evening Telegraph
“The action is high octane from the first page… Meg Gardiner is a class act at the top of her game. Once you pick it up, it’s a very hard book to put down.” My Weekly
“The always reliable Meg Gardiner has scored a hit with her fifth book, a race against the clock featuring a comely heroine, a romance and a slew of very, very bad people… Read it fast – and pray the movie is made.” Winnipeg Free Press
“Fast and furious.” Literary Review
“Gardiner’s prose is cool.” The Telegraph
… and Crosscut
"Well into X-Files territory, this is a tense and exciting thriller where almost anything seems possible. A conspiracy theorist's must-have." Mark Timlin, Independent on Sunday
"Marvelous... if you like AWOL assassins kicking ass then this is for you... It just gets flying from the first page when the first victim comes a cropper... it is so gripping that I read the last 150 pages into the early hours of the morning!" Five stars (highest rating). CrimeSquad.com
"Engaging characters, a richly coated atmosphere and a neat and nasty plot make this easily one of the best thrillers I've read this year. I could barely wait to get to the next page . . . if you start this book be prepared to be unable to put it down. Meg Gardiner has written a cracker." Caroline Carver, CWA Dagger-winning author of Blood Junction
... and Jericho Point
"Meg Gardiner dishes out the gripping plot in tense helpings. Short punchy chapters keep the pace flowing fast and you'll find it impossible to reach a resting point, even just to make a recharging cuppa. Definitely a book for the holiday suitcase." Glasgow Evening Times
“Meg Gardiner has a powerful style; fast-paced, immediate and imaginative. Her depictions of the criminal elements of the Hollywood fringe and the local drugs culture is a tightly observed slice of realism. Evan is a great tough but tender thriller heroine… we are with her all the way as her life is eroded and replaced with a hellish nightmare. This is a relentless, claustrophobic examination of mistaken identity and the terror of being accused of crime for which you are not responsible.” Kathryn White, Sherlock
“Meg Gardiner has rekindled my interest in thrillers. Her latest Evan Delaney novel is fast-paced, witty and brutal. I’ve got one more word for this novel: movie.” The Independent
... and Mission Canyon
“A rattling good read, with an unexpected twist at the end.” Sunday Telegraph
“It seems that the most enjoyable thrillers bring together the past and the present in unexpected yet suspenseful ways. So it is with Mission Canyon… Echoes of a horrible auto accident in the past, involving Delaney’s fiancé, keep coinciding with a harrowing (and all-too-timely) story of corporate greed and evil-doing in quirky Southern California. It’s up to Delaney to deal with this risky business and sort out the good from the bad, which she does with characteristic pluck and wit. The personal issues Gardiner raises about the physical and emotional consequences of severe injury are among the best parts of the story.” Jeffery Deaver
“An explosive new thriller… a strikingly good story.” Publishing News
“She’s sassy, streetwise and not afraid of getting in deep – but that’s because her latest mission is close to her heart. Loud-mouthed legal journalist Evan Delaney leads a life like no other journo I know – getting herself into the kinds of scrapes that could easily end up with her funeral – but hey, that’s what fiction is all about. And Mission Canyon certainly is fiction at its finest… There are so many nail-biting moments and hand-wringing twists that Mission Canyon makes exhausting reading. But that’s a compliment. So here’s looking forward to the next Evan Delaney installment – if my heart can stand it!” Alex Gordon, Peterborough Evening Telegraph
“A kick-ass heroine who would stop at nothing to protect those close to her… wry humour oft-times peppered with sarcastic wit; and a quickening pace to the climax… I couldn’t put the book down.” Jacinta Ho, The Peak, Singapore
... and China Lake
“From beginning to end CHINA LAKE is a book that no reader of thrillers will be able to put down. Great characters, dynamic plot, nail-biting action – Meg Gardiner gives us everything. I highly recommend it.” Elizabeth George
“Religious fundamentalism, anti-Aids crusaders, nutty relatives, and a Waco-style shootout: they're all here in the exciting mix that Gardiner expertly stirs up. Great stuff.” Independent on Sunday
“With a colourful cast of richly delineated characters, a protagonist with whom the readers will easily identify – all big-hearted, quick-tongued and hair-trigger-tempered – this novel provides a fast-paced ride through some of the more dubious nooks and crannies of the American dream and is an impressive opening salvo by a Surrey-based expatriate who hits the bookshelves running.”
Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian“China Lake makes a strong impression. The story grips and Ms Gardiner is a welcome addition to the ranks of American thriller writers.” Sunday Telegraph
“A great first novel. Fast and hard-edged. Buy it, read it.” Hull Daily Mail
“A cracker, with memorable characters, memorable lines and a plot that races along to an explosive ending. A great summer read.” Huddersfield Daily Examiner
