Mission Canyon: An Evan Delaney Novel (Evan Delaney Series) [Audiobook, CD, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Meg Gardiner (Author), Tanya Eby (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2008 | Series: Evan Delaney Series (Book 2)

While bicycling in the foothills of Santa Barbara, Jesse Blackburn and his friend Isaac are struck down by a hit-and-run driver. Isaac is killed, but Jesse survives. Now he wants revenge, and his fiancée, Evan Delaney, wants justice. Neither is simple. Evan and Jesse underestimate the power of the person with whom they’re dealing, and of the dark places where retribution will take them. As witnesses to the crime start dying one by one, it is apparent that no one can stop the killer – least of all Evan, who’s next on his list. “A HARROWING (AND ALL TOO TIMELY) STORY of corporate greed and evildoing in quirky Southern California.” – Jeffery Deaver “A RATTLING GOOD READ with an unexpected twist.” – The Sunday Telegraph

Editorial Reviews

Review

"- Praise for 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 - 'CHINA LAKE makes a strong impression. The story grips and Ms Gardiner is a welcome addition to the ranks of American thriller writers.' - Sunday Telegraph - 'With energetic, punchy prose and a breathless, action-thriller plot, CHINA LAKE is an assured debut. Evan Delaney is a great character, and Gardiner is a writer to watch.' - Manchester Evening News - 'Religious fundamentalism, anti-Aids crusaders, nutty relatives, and a Waco-style shootout: they're all here in the exciting mix that Gardiner expertly stirs up. Great stuff.' - Independent on Sunday - 'What sets CHINA LAKE apart...is the quality of Gardiner's writing. She has a way of capturing a character or place with a single line of epigrammatic prose...Readers everywhere will welcome Gardiner into the halls of praise frequented by fellow authors Patricia Cornwell and Kathy Reichs with this ebullient debut of a hot-tempered, kind-hearted and clever heroine.' - Waterstone's Books Quarterly --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Meg Gardiner is the author of The Memory Collector, The Dirty Secrets Club, and five novels in the Evan Delaney series, including China Lake which recently won the Edgar Award for best paperback original. She lives with her family near London.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Unabridged; Unabridged edition (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423361245
• ISBN-13: 978-1423361244
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,043,892 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

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's always magic to discover a new author with a fabulous series!, January 1, 2007

By 

Wayne C. Rogers (Las Vegas, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mission Canyon (Paperback)

I first heard about Meg Gardiner and her five "Evan Delaney" novels (China Lake, Mission Canyon, Jericho Point, Crosscut, and Kill Chain) almost three weeks ago when Stephen King wrote a rather long endorsement on his website about this fabulous crime-suspense author, who's an American, but lives in England and whose books are only published outside of the United States. Whew! That was a mouthful. King praised all of Gardiner's novels and was unable to understand why someone so talented isn't being read on a much larger basis. Because Meg Gardiner's books are not being published in the United States (King should talk to his American paperback publisher about this), it's a little more difficult to find her stuff without paying an arm and a leg for it. I was able to find two of her paperbacks on Amazon through the "used books" section. Not bad for a few minutes of work. The only catch is that I have to start with the second novel in the series, Mission Canyon, but beggars can't be choosers.

The plot of Mission Canyon revolves around a hit-and-run accident that happened three years before and involved Evan Delaney's fiancé, Jesse Blackburn, and his close friend, Isaac Sandoval. Both Jesse and Isaac were riding their bicycles through the hills of Santa Barbara and were struck from behind by a car that was supposedly driven by Franklin Brand, a VP at Mako Technologies, a corporation that deals with cyber security. Jesse was paralyzed below the waist and Isaac was killed. To avoid prosecution, Franklin Brand skipped the country and disappeared. Now, he's suddenly back in town, and Evan, Jesse, and Isaac's brother, Adam, want him arrested for vehicular manslaughter. If only life was so easy. As Evan and Jesse and Adam try to put Brand behind bars once and for all, they unexpectedly find themselves caught up in a labyrinth of deceit and lies that go far deeper than the car accident. There's something going on that not only involves Franklin Brand, but also Mako Technologies, the F.B.I., money laundering, cyber crime and extortion, a small ring of criminals from Los Angeles, and a pair of ex-contract assassins who used to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. Before Evan can even say, "Cousin Tater," people are going to be dropping like flies, and she's going to have a hard time keeping herself alive, not to mention Jesse and Adam. Justice will come at a heavy price!

I have to say that Mission Canyon is certainly one of the most complex novels that I've read in quite a while. It's necessary for the reader to pay attention to what's going on, or he may find himself lost and confused about who's doing what to whom. I won't say that a score card is needed, but it does come close when you consider how many different characters are involved in this story and how often their roles change throughout the novel. Almost no one can be trusted. Every character seems to be hiding something. Poor Evan Delaney finds herself caught in the middle, not knowing whom she can turn to. I only wish she carried a handgun. She comes so close to being killed a number of times that I found myself shouting out loud in my apartment. "Get a gun! Get a gun, damn it!" Now, since this is only the second book in the series, I hope this issue has been resolved. If you're going into dangerous territory, you'd better be packing some heat. I also want to add that the book is extremely fast paced. Gardiner knows exactly how to pace her novel so that the reader has to put off going to the bathroom in order to find out what happens next. I hated her for that! Though a great read, I still had a couple of problems with some of the scenes in the book. In one scene, though Evan understands that she's in danger, she still decides to baby sit her neighbor's child and almost gets herself and the kid killed. I think this was bad judgment on the main character's part. In another scene, though several people have already been murdered, Evan and her fiancé, Jesse, have an argument about a woman he had an affair with before she came into the picture. She already knew that he'd been involved with someone, just not who. To me this was wasted energy on Evan's part. If she's going to be tough, then she needs to start acting tough and not like a prima donna. My thought was that if you and Jesse get out of this alive, then you can rake him over the hot coals. Right now, both of you have more important things to worry about. As one character tells her, "You're not as tough as you think." All in all, a fabulous novel by a relatively unknown author, who just happens to look like her main character. I'm certainly looking forward to reading my next "Evan Delaney" novel and eventually the whole series. Come on, Steve, let's get moving with your publishers. That's the only way Meg Gardiner is going to become a household name here in the United States.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evan Delaney helps Jesee Blackburn confront what happened in Mission Canyon, March 18, 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)   

This review is from: Mission Canyon (Paperback)

I was also directed by Stephen King to the Evan Delaney thrillers, although I did not get the word until his column in "Entertainment Weekly" extolled the novels of Meg Gardiner. It has been years since I had read a first rate thriller by Tom Clancy and the last time I took a recommendation from King, the Chief Mario Balzac crime novels of K.C. Constantine, that had worked out great so I decided to make the effort to track down Gardiner's novels. I knew that the books were not published in the United States, since that was a key part of King's encomium, and since it never dawned on me that there is another country in this hemisphere that publishers books in English, I did not stop, passed go, and went to Amazon on the Thames to get the first three paperbacks. They did not come in that order, because that would have made sense, but I held out and waited until I had "China Lake" so that I could start at the very beginning. I forced myself to read a couple of other books before I allowed myself the pleasure of devouring Gardiner's second effort, "Mission Canyon." It has been a long time since I had to stay up hours past my bedtime to get to the last page of a novel, but that is what happened with this one.

The titles of Gardiner's books (so far at least) are the names of places, and "Mission Canyon" is the place in the foothills of Santa Barbara where a satin-gray BMW left Evan's fiance Jesse Blackburn paralyzed and broken. It also killed his friend his friend Isaac Sandoval. Now it is three years later and while Evan is trying to help Jesse serve papers to Cal Diamond of Diamond Mindworks, a software company, when Jesse Brand spots Franklin Brand, the hit-and-run driver who ran him down. What would make a multi-millionaire who fled the country to avoid manslaughter charges come back to Santa Barbara? Jesse does not care, because all he and Isaac's brother Adam want is to see Brand pay for what he has done. But Evan knows that figuring out why Brand is back will make it easier to track him down and bring him to the authorities. What she does not expect is that every thing she finds out about Brand, Jesse and Isaac would make her rethink what happened that fateful day in Mission Canyon. Even if they get out of this one alive, Evan and Jesse's relationship could be over.

I do think that you can enjoy "Mission Canyon" without having read "China Lake," although obviously the first book is where Gardiner introduces her characters. There is really only one real reference to the previous novel and Gardiner does not provide any spoilers that would ruin the experience, but of course I would urge you to do the other one first. Either way I would be surprised at anybody who would not want to read another one of these, although I suppose such a thing is possible. There are two significant twists in this thriller, or rather I should say that there were two significant twists that I anticipated. This was not because Gardiner was telegraphing the twists, but instead that since this was my second Evan Delaney Thriller I had a good idea of how complicated she likes to make things and I kept taking each new disclosure with a grain of salt and challenge my basic assumptions. So actually the fact that I was not surprised was a good thing, because I was on the same wavelength as Gardiner, which would also be a good thing, especially when that covers before her caustic wit as well as her plot complexities. Now the only question is how long I can wait before I start doing her third novel, "Jericho Point." My best guess would be not long. After all, it promises: "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll. And Murder."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Evan Delaney=Stephanie Plum with a brain :), July 20, 2008

By 

S. Breeden "Sue" (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mission Canyon: An Evan Delaney Novel (Kindle Edition)

Mission Canyon is the second book in the Evan Delaney series,and the second Meg Gardiner book I have read. I am certainly not trying to disrespect Stephanie Plum(Evanovich books), I have read all but the last of the Evanovich novels and poor Stephanie does not seem to ever get a clue. While there are lots of laughs in those novels, the Evan Delaney books seem to be the next step for me; Meg Gardiner pulls you into the story from the start and keeps the pace up the whole way through. I won't post a long winded synopsis of the story here, as I myself don't enjoy that type of review, but I will say this book is a wonderful read and I can't wait until the next in the series is released here in the United States.