This was my first Gardiner and I was not disappointed. This moved very fast and I read 90% in one sitting. You don't discover the true bad guy until the very end. From start to finish this is an action packed gasp of a ride.

I was glad to discover that there will be at least one more installment for Jo Beckett's character. ( )

Book 1 in the Jo Beckett series

This suspense-murder-detective story focuses on Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist who profiles the dead to determine the events and cause of their demise. Lt Amy Tang completes the team, a feisty and hard nosed but likable Asian cop.

The story starts off slow but soon you will find yourself plunged into the mystery when Callie Harding, a bigwig prosecutor smashes her car into a bridge. The mystery deepens when messages are discovered scrawled on her body.

Jo and Amy are called to investigate and discover that Harding was a member of an illusive club "The Dirty Secrets Group". This group invites members to join by confessing and proving their darkest and most shameful secrets, pushing their members to commit dares to thrill others. At one point something goes terribly wrong and one by one the members are targeted and die under mysterious circumstances. Jo and Amy are in a rush against time to avoid more deaths.

We have likable characters with the right mix of toughness and vulnerability. The subject of psychological forensic is definitely a unique job to have given to her protagonist. I particularly loved Gabe Quintana, Jo's closest friend, a definite asset to the cast. The writing is simplistic but has lively dialogue. On the down side, the plot is weak, it has quite a few old clichés, and its pace is slow with few twists and turns. I found the chase scenes far fetched for the type of story depicted.

Although I may not categorized this novel as a page turner I found it a pleasant read and would recommend it. ( )

Awesome read! I enjoyed the audio version of this book and had a hard time pulling the plug. I found myself listening to this book at any and all moments of the day because I couldn't put it down! This was my first Meg Gardiner and I know that I'll be checking out other books by her in the near future.
I never knew about that there was such a position as a forensic psychiatrist, so Jo's job in this book was eye-opening. It was interesting and she was such a great character. While there were many characters in the book, Jo is the main one and the only one that is truly developed. In fact, I can't even remember the names of many of the side characters. They just weren't that critical to the story. But, that's not a negative. I liked getting to know Jo and really enjoyed the plot line of this book. It was something different but not so far fetched that it was unbelievable. I find that the more mystery/suspense books I read, the more they all seem to run together, but this one wasn't run of the mill for me. I'd like to listen to this one again, or read it the second time around just to see if I'd pick something up that I missed the first time.
Overall, great book! Fun, fast and entertaining. I highly recommend it! ( )

Good, but not great. I liked China Lake better. I do not understand the ringing endorsement by Stephen King for this author. I'm not saying I will not read more of her books, but I do not find them to be at the highest level of mystery and suspense novels I love to read. ( )

Dashiell Hammet on speed. Meg Gardiner’s first Jo Beckett novel pulses with an unnatural beat, like a heart hurtling towards a fatal rhythm. It features many of the elements of a good noir mystery, including a hard edged, hard luck hero with a heart much deeper than she is willing to let on and a story which illuminates the darker elements of the human soul.

Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist tapped by the San Francisco Police Department to review equivocal death cases, catapults into a blood feud when she arrives at the scene of an unusual murder-suicide. An aggressive and calculating Assistant United States Attorney has hurled her car off of a downtown San Francisco bridge, killing herself and seriously injuring her passenger. At the scene, Beckett sees the word “DIRTY” scrawled on the AUSA’s thigh, in bright red lipstick. Is it a one word judgement, passed by a depressed and hopelessly broken soul bent on self-destruction? Is it a warning or message, desperately scribbled on the AUSA’s leg by her passenger before losing consciousness? Or is it a clue to a larger, more sordid tale?

With the larger mystery zipping along at top speed, Gardiner tosses in Beckett’s painful past. Examining a series of unfortunate tragedies in Beckett’s life, it is clear why she is better at sifting through the psychological remains of the dead than connecting with the living; better at sorting out other people’s broken lives than mending her own. Beckett exhibits more depth and inspires more interest than your average hero from an off-the-rack mystery/thriller because Gardiner displays all of her contradictions and weaknesses right alongside all of her principals and strengths. Her personal problems inform not just her everyday life but also her investigation. So, Beckett never seems like just another automaton being carefully shifted around the board to serve a writer’s need for plot twists. Rather, she leaps off the page, daring the reader follow her.

Gardiner’s pace lives not just in the events she throws at the story and characters but also in her deft word selection and usage. There is no passivity in her writing, ever. She assaults every scene, every character, and every plot element with vital, throbbing prose. With less attention to detail and less care in craft, this novel could be run-of-the-mill pulp. But it delivers with a charge, tipping a fedora to an earlier genre of crime fiction and, at the same time, mainlining it with adrenaline.

4 ½ bones!!!!! ( )