Crosscut: An Evan Delaney Novel [Mass Market Paperback]

Meg Gardiner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Evan Delaney Novel | Publication Date: June 5, 2012

Evan Delaney knew China Lake was a tough place to grow up. But she never knew how tough until now?she returns to the desert military base for her high school reunion, and learns that a number of her classmates have died young. Then, on the first night of the reunion, another one dies? this one savagely butchered. And she?s just the first. Someone has an axe to grind?and Evan?s graduating class has something to fear.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Evan Delaney is a bit apprehensive about attending her 15-year high school reunion on the Navy base at China Lake, Calif., and with good reason: an alarming number of her classmates have died, in seemingly unrelated ways-"Car crash. ... Pneumonia. ... Cancer. Long Illness. Exposure. ... hospital fire"-and that's before one of the reunion organizers is brutally murdered. As the body count rises, Evan begins to suspect the string of deaths has something to do with her China Lake past. This fourth installment of the China Lake/Evan Delaney mystery series certainly shows the potential for a first-class thrill ride-human characters, an original plot, a crafty scientific angle and some genuine scares (dentophobes, be warned)-but, though a page-turner to the end, its strengths are obscured by too much of each: too many characters, too many backstories, too many twists and too much jargon.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'A rattling good read, with an unexpected twist at the end.' -- Sunday Telegraph on MISSION CANYON 'With a colourful cast of richly delineated characters, a protagonist with whom the readers will easily identify -- all big-hearted, quick-tongued and hair-trigger-tempered -- this novel provides a fast-paced ride through some of the more dubious nooks and crannies of the American dream.' -- Maxim Jakubowski, Guardian on CHINA LAKE 'From beginning to end CHINA LAKE is a book that no reader of thrillers will be able to put down. Great characters, dynamic plot, nail-biting action -- Meg Gardiner gives us everything.' -- Elizabeth George on CHINA LAKE 'Rough, tough and uncomprimising, China Lake targets harder than a Sidewinder missile.' -- The Good Book Guide 'a tense and exciting thriller where almost everything seems possible. A conspiricy theorist's must have' -- Independant on Sunday 20051023 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 371 pages
• Publisher: Obsidian; Reprint edition (June 5, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451225228
• ISBN-13: 978-0451225221
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #987,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Meg 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evan Delaney finds out that class reunions can be a killer, April 29, 2007

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crosscut (Evan Delaney Mysteries) (Paperback)

Meg Gardiner is good. In fact she is really, really good is you like the high-octane thriller genre (mystery does not really describe these novels). There was a point in "Crosscut," the fourth of her Evan Delaney where I thought I was successfully ahead of the game and knew that what was going on was not "A" but "B." Only it turned out to "C," which was so much worse than "A" and "B" put together. I should know by now that when we get to the part of Gardiner's novels where things go from bad to worse that we are only just getting started. Halfway through reading "Crosscut" I was thinking how Evan Delaney takes a licking but keeps on ticking; then I discovered that her level of determination was nothing compared to the villain this time around, especially when you get to the endgame and Gardiner puts the pedal to the metal and floors it for the final chapters. Plus, Gardiner has endowed her heroine with a wicked sense of humor that always has me chuckling (even more so than the "Ask Evan" part of her website).

In the previous book, "Jericho Point," Gardiner had upped the ante because the third time around Evan was the target after having dealt with threats to her brother and nephew ("China Lake") and her boyfriend Jesse ("Mission Canyon"). So I assumed Gardiner would not be able to continue her escalation, but I was wrong because this time Evan discovers that something, or someone, is killing off her high school graduating class. More specifically, the targets were all part of a particular field trip at China Lake and Evan is part of a quartet who are being saved for last, which is not even close to being a good thing. That is actually more than what you need to know about the novel, because all that really matters is that if you have read the previous novels this one is every bit as good, and arguably better, and you should discover what this one is about without bothering to read the back cover for hints. Certainly "Crosscut" is a much darker tale as Gardiner crafts scenes and situations that have horrific implications for her cast of characters. On the other hand, if you have not read any of Gardiner's books, then the effort here would simply be to persuaded you to track down "China Lake" and start at the very beginning of the Evan Delaney series.

The fifth Evan Delaney thriller, "Kill Chain," comes out in paperback in June and mine is already ordered from the UK branch of Amazon (because I did not think to look north of the border when I took Stephen King's advice and tracked down these novels). I assume the sixth one will show up sometime later this year and you can bet your sweet bippy that I am going to order the hardcover edition and not wait a year or however long it takes for it to come out in paperback. More importantly, I am going to enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts and not let the shadow of what happened with the novels of Laurell K. Hamilton, Tom Clancy, Patricia Cornwell, and other former favorites pass over my happy reader's heart.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I've rarely been so angry at an author, March 3, 2010

By 

Lover of Books (Adelaide Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crosscut: An Evan Delaney Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

Are all you 5 star reviewers a friend of Gardiner? Crosscut has possibly the worst ending of a book I've ever read. I just read all the Delaney books and they got worse with each one. All endings can't be happy ones, but if they're not, it should be for a reason. You simply don't have to end a book with key characters dying and relationships torn apart. How can any of you say you honestly enjoyed this miserable and violent book once you closed the back cover?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Ending. Depressing!, July 1, 2011

By 

Winyan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crosscut: An Evan Delaney Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

I just finished Crosscut. It has probably the worst ending of any book I've read. We needed one ray of light through all of the dark, intense grossness of the story. Now I feel like it was a waste of time to keep reading it. I enjoyed a couple of Gardiner's other books that I've read. But this one was just depressing. Her worst. Not worth the time, unless you enjoy being grossed out and depressed.