Meg Gardiner

Clear your calendar. Seriously, drop everything, except this book. Find a comfortable spot and hang a Do Not Disturb sign. Once you’ve read the first sentence, you won’t want to stop.

This book is blistering intensity from start to finish. It’s gritty, realistic, and disturbing.

Meg Gardiner has the rare ability to take us down into the depths of darkness without ever crossing the line into gratuitous gore or excessive detail.

The Dark Corners of the Night is book 3 in the UNSUB series. show more While a thread from a prior case is carried over from the previous books, this one can be read as a stand-alone. Though I wouldn’t recommend it because the first two books are too good to miss.

*I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.* show less

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 show more 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!!!!! show less

I’ve been feeling motivated to make progress on some of the book series I’ve been slowly reading. Of course, there are several of them, so we’ll see how well I stick to my plan considering I’m also a mood reader with 18 library holds that seem to be getting closer to my turn to borrow. Meg Gardiner’s UNSUB series seems like the perfect choice to tackle. There are currently four books published, and I’ve already completed two of them. Plus, I’ve been feeling nostalgic for show more stories that combine psychology and serial killers.

In The Dark Corners of the Night, the third installment in the UNSUB series, FBI behavioral analyst Caitlin Hendrix arrives in Los Angeles to help track a mysterious serial killer known as the Midnight Man. He targets suburban homes under the cover of darkness, leaving a trail of terror that has the community on edge. As the investigation intensifies, Caitlin delves into the psychological depths of the unknown subject while grappling with her own past.

This is an exceptional thriller that kept me hooked from the very beginning to the end. As someone fascinated by the Behavioral Analysis Unit, I thoroughly enjoyed how deeply the story explores the world of criminal profiling. It evoked strong Criminal Minds vibes in the best possible way—sharp insights, tense team dynamics, and that chilling cat-and-mouse game between the investigators and the killer.

The novel is relentlessly suspenseful, with an atmosphere so thick you can feel the darkness closing in. There were several genuinely shocking moments that made me gasp out loud, and the final confrontation was intense, surprising, and incredibly satisfying. Gardiner masterfully balances high-stakes action with psychological depth, making this an excellent entry in the UNSUB series.

I borrowed the audiobook of The Dark Corners of the Night from my local library using Hoopla. Hillary Huber’s narration was enjoyable.

I have photos and additional information that I'm unable to include here. It can all be found on my blog, in the link below.
A Book And A Dog show less

The thing about the List Swap Challenge is that I get to read great novels chosen for me by Julie. China Lake is a great one too. From the very first page, Ms. Gardiner threw me right into the story.

I enjoyed the characters. I liked Evan a lot. She was the kind of person I would like to be friends with. Down to earth, witty, a bit of a smart ass but a heart of gold. She was stubborn and willful. Thankfully that tenacity paid off. She was the ultimate hero. Jesse, Evan's boyfriend, was a bit show more annoying at times. I'm not a fan of characters who are omnipotent, overly opinionated and sanctimonious. At times Jesse was the poster boy. Brian, Evan's brother, was a bit like Jesse. He carried himself in a way that showed he was in-charge and the authority on all. Truthfully, I thought he was a jerk. The string of villains Ms. Gardiner brought to the table were fantastic. All equally creepy and delusional. I particularly liked Glory who with time I thought could have been a great ally to Evan. And with Evan's guidance, a strong resourceful woman. And then there is Luke. I liked Luke a lot. He was well spoken, smart, an old soul. I hated seeing all the trauma he had to go through. Thankfully Aunt Evan was there to protect him.

What frightens me about this novel is how real it can be. How there are Christian zealous groups out there who can wreck havoc on the world in the name of Jesus. I think Ms. Gardiner wrote this novel in such a way that I experienced that terror myself. While I was reading this novel, I actually went on the Internet, searching for these kinds of groups to see how safe we are as a nation from them.

This novel was chocked full of surprises. With every page there was a new surprise. Every corner led to more mystery, more thrills. I had no idea where she was going or how we would get there. It was a suspenseful journey, one that left me breathless in the end. One that had me wanting more adventures with Evan. show less