Published by Penquin, 17 October, 2013.
ISBN: 978-1-4059-1394-2
The biggest mystery about Meg Gardiner’s books is why no one has
noticed their movie potential.
For
The Shadow Tracer she has reinvented herself as M G Gardiner, possibly
in attempt to reach a wider audience, though I doubt she’s kidding many people.
The new book is either a standalone or the first in this hugely underrated
author’s third series (and I can’t wait to find out which), and it’s every bit
as big-screen-friendly as all the others. There’s a colourful rock festival,
edge-of-the-seat car chases, gunfights to set your heart racing, an explosive
fire which traps good and bad guys alike, and a terrific nerve-jangling finale
in an airplane graveyard – yes, really.
It
starts out as a classic example of an ordinary person thrown headlong into
extraordinary circumstances. Sarah Keller and her adopted daughter Zoë have lived under the
radar for five years when through a freak accident they suddenly find
themselves hunted down by the police, the FBI and Zoë’s father’s violent
religious fundamentalist family. The plot
soon begins to race along at warp speed; it left me breathless and occasionally
corkscrewed back on itself to provide that extra jolt. Eventually it’s down to
Sarah’s ingenuity and raw courage to defeat the odds and face down the bad
guys.
Gardiner
is equally at home in bustling cities and empty wasteland. Much of the action,
and there’s a lot of it, takes place in the heat of the New Mexico desert, an
inhospitable terrain where the nearest neighbour can be fifty miles away; in
her more than capable hands the landscape and the conditions come to life. I
blinked in the narrative’s ferocious midday sun, forgetting the damp, chilly
winter afternoon outside.
Then
there’s the characters. Zoë is an extraordinary five-year-old, but never less than completely
believable; Sarah is as plucky and
resourceful as they come, with enough vulnerability to keep her human. The
large supporting cast includes a US Marshal with a heart, a damaged,
driven FBI agent, a nun with attitude and a rally driver’s soul, and the most
chilling and malign villains I’ve encountered for a long time.
OK,
I admit it: I’m a fan. A new Meg Gardiner is always a treat to those in the
know, of whom I feel privileged to be one; I read this one in a couple of days,
and didn’t want it to end. Think Lee Child with a bit more heart and a generous
helping of James-Bond-movie-style high-octane action scenes. And as a bonus,
the writing is to die for.
------
Reviewer: Lynne
Patrick
M G Gardiner writes thrillers set in California. The Evan Delaney novels,
featuring a Santa Barbara freelance journalist,
include 2009 Edgar Award winner China
Lake. The Jo Beckett
series features a San Francisco
forensic psychiatrist. The Dirty Secrets Club won the RT Reviewers' Choice
Award for Best Procedural Novel of 2008 and was chosen one of the year's Top
Ten Mysteries and Thrillers by Amazon.com. Originally from Oklahoma,
Gardiner practiced law in Los Angeles and taught
at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. She lives near London.
Lynne Patrick has been a writer ever since she could pick up a pen,
and has enjoyed success with short stories, reviews and feature journalism, but
never, alas, with a novel. She crossed to the dark side to become a publisher
for a few years, and is proud to have launched several careers which are now
burgeoning. She lives on the edge of rural Derbyshire in a house groaning with
books, about half of them crime fiction.
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