Linkmeister

New (to me) thriller author

I first ran across the name Meg Gardiner in one of John Scalzi's The Big Idea posts, wherein he turns the floor over to an author who explains what prompted him (or her) to write his newest book. The concept sounded interesting:

The novel’s about the collision of fame and power. Also about the collision of helicopters, country-western singers, celebrity stalkers, White House minions, violent right-wing militants, and a television reporter from the Channel of the Blondes.

The big idea is: The Celebrity-Political complex has turned conspiracy-mongering into an American sport. It’s both crazy and deadly. To sort truth from fiction, it’s going to take a shrink. Jo must find out whether there’s a real conspiracy, one that threatens the President.

Gardiner has two series characters going; this one features Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist. A what?

Forensic psychiatrists actually perform psychological autopsies in cases of equivocal death, to determine whether a victim’s death is natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide.

The other character is a freelance journalist named Evan Delaney. Both series are set in California.

I picked up the first two books in the Jo Beckett series from the library and read them each at a single gulp; they're that good and that fast-paced. My library just acquired the third book and I've reserved it. I am now on book one of the Evan Delaney series.

Oh. Stephen King likes Gardiner too.

Posted by Linkmeister at July 7, 2010 08:16 PM | TrackBack