China Lake (Evan Delaney Series #1)

by Meg Gardiner

Overview

From award-winning author Meg Gardiner, co-author of Michael Mann’s Heat 2

Evan Delaney learns that not only has her ex-sister-in-law joined a religious cult, but the unstable young mother plans to regain custody of her son and disappear with him into the fold of the fanatical group. But when murder raises the stakes, Evan is dragged even deeper into the nightmare.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440630521
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/03/2008
Series:	Evan Delaney Series , #1
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	158,301
File size:	388 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Meg Gardiner previously practiced law and taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Originally from Southern California, she now lives with her family in London. The Dirty Secrets Club is her first novel published in the U.S. She will be promoting The Dirty Secrets Club on a national tour this summer.

Editorial Reviews

After giving up her law career to work as a legal researcher and science fiction writer, Evan Delaney is also helping her fighter pilot brother, Brian, raise his six-year-old son, Luke. But soon Luke's mother, Tabitha, reappears as a member of the Remnant, a fundamentalist religious group that targets the funeral of Evan's friend Claudine, who died of AIDS. Led by the fanatical pastor Peter Wyoming, the Remnant preaches of a coming apocalypse and urges its members to cleanse themselves of all things satanic. Tabitha demands custody of Luke; the church attacks Evan for her "sacrilegious" books and Brian for his role in the evil known as the federal government. Things heat up when a member of the Remnant is murdered, and the police arrest Brian as the key suspect. Gardiner nimbly turns what could be a tired plot into a suspenseful thriller, thanks in part to the quick-witted-and even quicker tempered-Evan.

Gardiner's stand-alone novel, The Dirty Secrets Club(Dutton, July), will be the author's first simultaneous release in the U.S. and the U.K. Obsidian plans to release the remaining Evan Delaney novels monthly. China Lake's June release will be followed by Mission Canyon in July, Jericho Point in August, Crosscut in September and, in October, Kill Chain.

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Publishers Weekly

Former lawyer and sci-fi novelist Evan Delaney becomes the target of a doomsday religious cult after her ex-sister-in-law tries to regain custody of her son. Narrator Tanya Eby Sirois navigates this tale of terror in God's name with a smooth professionalism, altering her tempo during the action sequences and slowing her rhythm when delivering exposition. A terrific sequence involving the funeral of an AIDS victim is visceral in its impact. The murder of the leader of the fundamentalist group further ups the ante as events move to the story’s climax. Listeners will relish the suspense and breakneck action, which are augmented by Sirois’s pitch-perfect delivery. R.O. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2008 - AudioFile