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!!!!! ( )

Stephen King calls her the “next suspense superstar” and Meg Gardiner is amazing with this novel about a secret society known as The Dirty Secrets Club, the question is, what really is the DSC.

Jo Beckett has faced trauma and heartache in her life, which led her to leave medicine and start analyzing death to determine the means – suicide, murder, accident. When she is requested to figure out whether an attorney killed herself or was murdered, things start to spin out of control. It appears no one is really safe when it comes to secrets.

While a slow start, a little confusing as to what was going on, I soon found myself trapped in reading this book for so long that I’m glad it took me a long time to finish. Great book. I can’t wait to read more Gardiner. ( )

Meg Gardiner got the idea for The Dirty Secrets Club after visiting a Web site where secrets are posted anonymously. Silly, sad, weird and sometimes dirty, these secrets are, at times, fascinating. She took the premise and wrote a really great story where characters are caught up in a Dirty Secrets Club. Jo Beckett, forensic psychiatrist, is called in when a prominent attorney dies in a very questionable way. From that point on, time is running out for people who are linked to this attorney and to the mysterious and deadly victim who wants revenge because of a very nasty secret they all share.

Meg brings us right into this secretive world with twists and turns that will keep the readers on the edge of their seats. Her smooth use of the language just flows so nicely--creative, witty and smart, I haven't read a Gardiner book yet that has let me down.

I have only one complaint about DSC; I am a fan of her Evan Delaney series, so it was difficult to get hooked into this main character where I cared about her well-being. This is the fault of the reader, not the author.

Jo Beckett's story is told in flashbacks, and although well written, it delayed my acceptance of her as a great protagonist. I wish her backstory would have just been laid out in one big chunk, but Meg so deftly works her personal history into the framework of the whole piece, I can't imagine it working as well my way. (That's why Meg's the author and I'm not. :-)). The story was filled with suspense and intrigue. I ultimately liked Jo Beckett, but I'm pretty sure I'll like her even better in the next book. ( )

San Francisco is experiencing an earthquake when the 49ers star receiver, Scott Southern, is sneaking into his attorney's evacuated officer tower with an assistant district attorney, Kallie Harding. He's there to complete a dare and she's there to witness it and provide the proof. It's all part of "The Dirty Secrets Club." But when Kallie drives off a bridge, Scott jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge, and other high-power members of the club also end up dead, Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist, makes it her mission to find out what exactly is going on with this mysterious club.

I listened to this book on audio (please excuse me if I've misspelled names) and it was read by Susan Ericksen. Not only do I find her to be the best female reader I've encountered so far, but she is among the best overall. Her distinctive voices for all the characters coupled with her perfect balance of dramatic effect made the book a joy to listen to.

The characters and plot in this book were rather time-appropriate considering the members of the "Dirty Secrets Club" are all people in position of power who essentially believe they can get away with anything BECAUSE of their positions. Despite its tie-in to current events, it's still a disturbing facet of human...or at least American psyches.

There were a couple elements about the plot that bothered me as far as logic went, but it still made for a great crime fiction story. The ending got a little carried away, I thought. Without exposing too much, it was just a case of every time you thought the end had come, some other disaster struck Jo Beckett. The poor woman couldn't cut a break to save her life. And after awhile I found myself thinking, "oh, come on already!"

While there wasn't a lot of humor in the book, there was Ferd. I LOVED Ferd and his monkey Mr. Peebles. For me they stole the show. The image if Jo carrying a duct taped monkey into a computer supply store, her hair and clothes covered in shampoo was just too funny. ( )

Where has Meg Gardiner been hiding? This was fabulous! It’s been a while since I’ve been so taken with a new (or new to me) suspense writer. The action in this book starts almost immediately with a crazy dare and the death of a U.S. Attorney. Jo Beckett is a really interesting character with a profession that I haven’t seen explored before (if it actually even exists!) — forensic psychology. Instead of determining how someone died, it’s Jo’s job to determine the why, not only to help with the official police investigation, but also to provide closure to the family of the victims. There are tons of twists in this story as it unfolds, along with a solid cast of characters. Each one is their own person, from Jo’s quirky next-door neighbor to the spunky detective she’s working with to the paramedic with a tie to Jo’s tragic past. And what is this club really about? Sex? Money? Revenge? The relief of unburdening oneself? This will most definitely not be the last Meg Gardiner book I read. ( )

I liked this book. The characters were interesting and enticing - gotta love Gabe. The secrets were dispicable on many levels, not just to the person with the secret, and effected many lives in the book. I would be interested in reading more books with this main character. ( )

http://girlsjustreading.blogspot.com/... ( )

I read this book because of the cover blurb from Stephen King to the effect that Meg Gardiner is the next great thriller writer. Well, King and I must have very different tastes. The book is a hopless mish-mash of nonsensical plot turns, implausible developments, incredible leaps in deductive logic on the part of the protagonist, and then an utterly ludicrous chase through the streets of a quake-ravaged San Francisco in which, miraculously, there is not a single soul present to aid our heroine and her young charge in their desparate attempt to evade the killer and his evil mastermind. This is only my personal opinion, but any story that depends on a natural disaster for a major plot development is to be taken with a serious grain of salt. This book was a complete and frustrating waste of time. ( )

With an endorsement by best-selling author Stephen King and a vast majority of those writing suspense fiction today, you have to wonder why Meg Gardiner hasn't broken through in a big way here in the United States. From what I understand, she's published several successful novels in the UK, all of which are being published here over the next several months.
After reading "Dirty Secrets Club," I can see why she has the ringing endorsement of Mr. King and others. And I can definitely see her being the next "big thing" not only in the mystery/suspense genre but also in the publishing world as a whole.

Set in San Francisco, "The Dirty Secrets Club," is a secret society of people, all of whom have a dark secret from their past that they've shared with members of the group. Run in cells to keep one person from having too much power, members of the group are dying at the rate of one every three days, all in spectacular fashion and in a way that looks like suicide. The latest victim works for the district attorney's office and is one of the founding members of the club.

After her death, the case is given a high priority to be solved, leading to foresnic pyschologic Jo Beckett being brought onto the case. Beckett's job is to explain the why of the death and the pyschological state of the victim of a crime. But just like the victims, Beckett has her own secret from the past she doesn't want brought into the light of day.

Fast paced and exhilerating, "The Dirty Secrets Club" is one part pyschological drama, one part character study, one part suspense thriller and one part mystery. Gardiner shifts efortelessly from scene to scene and follows several characters in the story, weaving together a story that is suspenseful, exciting and one hell of a good read. I will warn you that this is not a book to read as you're getting ready to turn out the light and need to be up early the next day. Not only can Gardiner draw you into her universe with the story unfolding, but her writing style is effortless and addictive to read. You'll find yourself up way past bedtime, just wanting to read one more chapter to see what happens next.

Along the way, there are revelations, twists and turns to the story all of which are surprising and well set up by the early stages of the story. Nothing comes entirely out of left field, making the reader roll their eyes. Instead, the twists will shock and then begin to make sense based on what we know about the situation and the characters.

Meg Gardiner could be the next big thing in the writing world. But don't let it be a dirty secret...share her writing and this great novel with not only yourself but everyone you come in contact with. This is a great book and I highly recommend it ( )

Good read, I only wish ending were longer. I loved the whole development and how most everthing was ironed out in the end. I hate loose ends in "non series" books. ( )

As a forensic psychiatrist, Jo Beckett determines whether murder or suicide has been committed in questionable deaths. The San Francisco Police Department needs her services after a string of suspicious suicides. The cops are concerned that more suicides are imminent, and they're right—bodies start piling up, and the pressure is on Beckett to figure out what's going on and how to stop it. Luckily, she's tenacious and the cop assigned to the case equally so, but, nonetheless, things get really tense when a rising star in the district attorney's office is the newest victim. Beckett determines that all the suicides belong to the Dirty Secrets Club, whose members have shameful events in their past. The tension mounts as Beckett tries to figure out who will be next, but it's not an easy puzzle to piece together, especially when her own past is flung in her face. Stephen King brought Gardiner, an American living and published in Britain, to the attention of U.S. readers; her U.S. debut is highly recommended for larger fiction collections.