The Dirty Secrets Club

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 show more 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

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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 show less

Sometimes it’s not such a good idea to go back to the earlier works of an author whose novels I enjoyed, and that proved to be the case with Meg Gardiner, whose Unsub series has been one of my best finds in the thriller/mystery category. Since I enjoyed those books very much, while I was waiting for the fourth Unsub novel to come out I decided to give The Dirty Secrets Club a look, but sadly it did not compare with Gardiner’s later efforts, even though it was a swift, reasonably entertaining read. It’s clear that in the nine years between this book and the first Unsub novel the author honed her skills considerably, so I guess I will limit myself to her newest offerings in the future.

The main character in The Dirty Secrets Club is show more Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist: her job is to examine the personality and life of the victims of equivocal deaths, to shed some light on the circumstances that brought them to their demise. Jo is quite similar to Gardiner’s other heroine, Caitlin Hendrix, in that she is a mixture of strength and vulnerability, and very determined in her chosen profession - there is a grievous personal tragedy in her past that often weighs on her mind, and she still suffers from the claustrophobic effects of having been trapped in a car during a past earthquake, but her resolve in not letting these problems affect her and her work is indeed one of her most admirable characteristics.

At the start of the novel, Jo is called by San Francisco PD Lieutenant Amy Tang to help in the investigation of a string of murder/suicides that seems to be targeting some of the most notable individuals in the city: a fashion designer blew up his boat, killing himself and his lover; a famous surgeon died of a suspicious heart attack after his son succumbed to a drug overdose; and more recently a US attorney launched her car from an overpass, killing herself and the passengers of a passing vehicle, and seriously wounding her assistant. At the scenes of these events are often present baffling words like “Pray” or “Dirty” and no one is able to understand the reason why these people, who had everything to look forward to in life or career, choose to end their existence in such a publicly dramatic way.

With the latest suicide, that of a sports star who dived from the Golden Gate Bridge, Jo and the police stumble on the existence of the Dirty Secrets Club: its members are prominent figures of society who enlist by revealing their most troubling, most damning secrets, the thrill of discovery probably offset by the conviction of being untouchable due to their position. Someone is however targeting the members of the club, someone with a powerful grudge and a driving need for vengeance, and soon enough Jo will find herself enmeshed in this mysterious person’s plots….

As I said at the start of this review, The Dirty Secrets Club does not compare, both narratively and character-wise, with the author’s more recent novels, although I have to admit that the story is an engaging one and the need to understand the mystery at its roots is a powerful motivator to keep on reading, but unfortunately the plot is a bit confusing at times and is burdened by some long expositions that at times hobble the pace, particularly toward the end when the Bad Guy falls prey to the trope-y compelling need to Tell Everything Before The End, which to me often robs of any drama what should be a tense situation.

Still, the story remains a reasonably compelling one and Meg Gardiner’s writing - even in these earlier stages of her career - takes you along for the ride with little effort, which proves to be a great help in suspending one’s disbelief at the more eye-rolling plot instances. Certainly this was not my favorite pick from this writer’s production, but it was an… honest story - for want of a better word - and one I don’t regret reading at all. show less

This was recommended by BDB and because I trust his judgment I decided to try it in spite of my misgivings. This is more “gritty” than the usual mysteries I read but I have found myself expanding my comfort zone since I’ve been on LT. I’m glad I accepted the challenge. The story was absorbing, the characters interesting and well drawn, the writing was wonderfully evocative and descriptive and the setting was San Francisco, the city of my birth and one of my favorite cities in the world. Although this would be probably be better classified as a “thriller” or at least a suspense novel there was enough “puzzle” in the plot to keep me happily guessing what was going on and kept me turning pages (I read it in two big gulps). show more I was especially intrigued by the protagonist’s occupation of “forensic psychologist” working as a consultant with the police. This is the first in a series about Dr. Jo Beckett and I am looking forward to more. I hope Lt. Amy Tang of the SFPD will also return in the next novel. Recommended show less

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 show more wait to read more Gardiner. show less

I almost put this book down after the first few pages, when it seemed too tawdry and grim, without a redeeming storyline or characters. I'm glad I stayed with it. It's a fast-paced, grisly thriller with several quirky but very likable (and presumably recurring) main characters. Sometimes I shy away from thrillers that seem to place more value on grossing me out than thinking about the characters. I almost consigned this to the gross-out pile, and that would have been a mistake. Recommended, with the extra dash of excitement due a vivid San Francisco setting - with earthquakes!