The Dirty Secrets Club

March 24, 2008
An intelligent and stubborn heroine who’s just emotionally vulnerable enough to be empathetic lifts this novel from Gardiner (China Lake
), a Californian now living in London making her U.S. debut. Dr. Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist (or “deadshrinker”), performs psychological autopsies to uncover the truths behind grisly crimes. Recruited to consult on the possible suicide of prosecutor Callie Harding, who drove her BMW off a San Francisco bridge and struck an airport minivan on the road below, Jo discovers this accident is the latest in a string of high profile murder-suicides. As Jo and the SFPD’s Lt. Amy Tang dig deeper, they uncover the Dirty Secrets Club, a shadowy group of citizens whose members include a noted fashion designer and a football star, both of whom committed very public suicides. Still coming to terms with her doctor husband’s recent death, Jo struggles to pinpoint the club’s origins, realizing that a former member may be systematically driving the remaining members to their deaths. Gardiner should win new fans on this side of the Atlantic with this adrenaline-filled thriller.

Starred review from April 15, 2008
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 rightbodies start piling up, and the pressure is on Beckett to figure out what's going on and how to stop it. Luckily, she's a tenacious one, 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. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/1/08; see the interview with Gardiner on p. 38.Ed.]Stacy Alesi, Boca Raton, FL

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 1, 2008
San Francisco forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett doesnt cut open victims bodies. She dissects their lives. Its her professional duty to determine why the dead get dead. This time around, Beckett just might be in over her head. Residents of San Francisco, already edgy from recent earthquake tremors, have become further unhinged by a series of provocativeand very publicmurder-suicides. Theyre tied to the Dirty Secrets Club, a group that promises anonymity to high-profile citizens aching to confess their sins. U.S. Attorney Callie Harding was the driving force behind the club until the night she drove her BMW off a city overpass, ending her life and those of three others. The word dirty was scrawled in red lipstick across her upper thigh, a clue that ultimately leads Beckett and diminutive SFPD detective Amy Tang to a sadistic psychopath with vengeance on his mind. Beckett and Tang are close to collaring the culprit when Jo receives a threatening letter detailing a dark secret of her own. This is the U.S. debut for Gardiner, an American who makes her home in London. Stephen King has raved about her in print, andshe proves more than worthy of that praise in this twister of a tale teeming with thrills and chills.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

July 28, 2008
SFPD forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett is smart, dogged and filled with guilt for failing to save her husband's life after a helicopter crash. One thing she isn't is constantly angry, but which nonetheless is the mood reader Susan Ericksen evokes from word one. Possibly attempting to play up the novel's edgier aspects—a couple of nasty villains are murdering unpleasant and elitist club members—she doesn't merely read the story, she almost snarls it. While this is a bit grating for much of the thriller, it is not completely inappropriate, as it turns out. At the end, a violent earthquake, followed by a grim, relentless attack by the killers, ratchets up the suspense. As Beckett gets in touch with her inner Rambo, Ericksen's acid-tinged delivery suddenly works just fine. A Dutton hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 24).