Customer Reviews

Crosscut: An Evan Delaney Novel (Evan Delaney Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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?

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.

THANK YOU Stephen King for introducing me to the world of Meg Gardiner and Evan Delaney !!!

This book was even better than China Lake !!!

More Meg Gardiner please !!!!!!!!

This was a brilliant book. I'd never read anything by Meg Gardiner before so wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was a book full of action and suspense with a likeable character in Evan Delaney. In Crosscut a serial killer is targeting Evan's former schoolmates and she has to find him before the rest of her friends are killed, and of course, she is also on the killer's hit list. The reason for the killings is hidden in the past when Evan and her classmates were in the vicinity of an explosion at a military base, and I won't tell you any more than that as I don't want to include spoilers. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who like a good crime thriller, and I know I now have Meg Gardiner on my list of favourite writers.

It was boring and not well written. I wish I could get my money back. Five more words complete my review.

This book came in great shape and it was a very fast delivery - thank you.

warning about the descriptions of violence, etc. I love this series and this author (found courtesy of my amazon.com recommendations-thanks), having now read all but Kill Chain (just started it) in their proper order. The descriptive violent scenes as well as the "talking" in the mind of the "bad guy", sort of shocked me (and I personally don't deal well with that type of writing). However, since I have loved all Ms. Gardiner's story lines, I simply skipped over those parts that I found disturbing. AND AM I GLAD I DIDN'T PUT IT DOWN....What a finale!! Read every word right to the end....

Oh, and don't forget Ms. Gardiner's non-Evan Delaney books "Dirty Little Secrets"...it's a winner as well!!!

Ah, this is a bit of the paranoid type mystery, in which graduates from a particular year are dying off prematurely. It doesn't take long to narrow it down to a particular field trip...well, take it from there. This is truly a page turner.

Compared to her earlier work, this novel is actually quite good. Don't give up on Gardiner yet!