The Dirty Secrets Club (Jo Beckett) (Hardcover)

by Meg Gardiner (Author) "Fire alarms sang through the skyscraper, piercing and relentless..." (more)
Key Phrases: dirty secrets, voice synthesizer, Dirty Secrets Club, Scott Southern, Callie Harding (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
An intelligent and stubborn heroine who's just emotionally vulnerable enough to be empathetic lifts this novel from Gardiner (China Lake), a Californian now living in London making her U.S. debut. Dr. Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist (or deadshrinker), performs psychological autopsies to uncover the truths behind grisly crimes. Recruited to consult on the possible suicide of prosecutor Callie Harding, who drove her BMW off a San Francisco bridge and struck an airport minivan on the road below, Jo discovers this accident is the latest in a string of high profile murder-suicides. As Jo and the SFPD's Lt. Amy Tang dig deeper, they uncover the Dirty Secrets Club, a shadowy group of citizens whose members include a noted fashion designer and a football star, both of whom committed very public suicides. Still coming to terms with her doctor husband's recent death, Jo struggles to pinpoint the club's origins, realizing that a former member may be systematically driving the remaining members to their deaths. Gardiner should win new fans on this side of the Atlantic with this adrenaline-filled thriller. (June)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* San Francisco forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett doesn’t cut open victims’ bodies. She dissects their lives. It’s her professional duty to determine why the dead get dead. This time around, Beckett just might be in over her head. Residents of San Francisco, already edgy from recent earthquake tremors, have become further unhinged by a series of provocative—and very public—murder-suicides. They’re tied to the Dirty Secrets Club, a group that promises anonymity to high-profile citizens aching to confess their sins. U.S. Attorney Callie Harding was the driving force behind the club until the night she drove her BMW off a city overpass, ending her life and those of three others. The word dirty was scrawled in red lipstick across her upper thigh, a clue that ultimately leads Beckett and diminutive SFPD detective Amy Tang to a sadistic psychopath with vengeance on his mind. Beckett and Tang are close to collaring the culprit when Jo receives a threatening letter detailing a dark secret of her own. This is the U.S. debut for Gardiner, an American who makes her home in London. Stephen King has raved about her in print, and she proves more than worthy of that praise in this twister of a tale teeming with thrills and chills. --Allison Block

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult (June 12, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525950664
• ISBN-13: 978-0525950660
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #193,131 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars `Each flash of the camera was a silent shriek', September 27, 2008

By	J. Cameron-Smith "Expect the Unexpected" (ACT, Australia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This novel kept me turning the pages so rapidly that I didn't actually stop to analyse the story. Which is probably a good thing: I'm not convinced that the various elements hang together well enough to provide a totally satisfying whole. Does it matter? Well, not to me. I was looking for an escapist novel and this book delivered.

There is a lot of action in this novel: not always coherent and not always believable. That will matter to some readers, and ordinarily it matters to me. But sometimes, it is good to suspend reality and just hop onto the rollercoaster.

Jo Beckett is a forensic psychiatrist who profiles victim's lives in order to try to help solve their deaths. Lieutenant Amy Tang calls Jo Beckett to the crime scene after a high speed pursuit in San Francisco ends with four people dead and five injured. So, why did Callie Harding drive her car through a bridge railing? What is the Dirty Secrets Club, and what can Jo do to try to prevent what appear to be a related series of murder/suicides by high profile people? Jo herself looks to be an interesting character as do many of the other `good guys' in this novel.

This was the first Meg Gardiner novel I've read, and it probably won't be the last. I'm intrigued without (yet) being totally hooked.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just didn't work for me, September 23, 2008

By	barry (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I was so excited to read this book. The plot sounded original and inventive and there are many positive reviews here. Sadly, none of it happened for me. I loved the idea of a forensic psychiatrist. How original. And the idea of a dirty secrets club was very intriguing.

The opening scene which I think was supposed to be thrilling and a shocking intro was just over the top and not realistic in my opinion. As the novel goes on it didn't improve much. The author clearly can write well. That is not the problem here. Usually when I read a book I give it like 75 pages and then if I just can't bear to pick it up I move on to another. That was the case with this one but it was well written and still seemed to be propelling forward just a little under the level of true excitement that I gave it 150 pages. Sadly, at that point I found the characters one dimensional. We knew a little about the life of Jo Becket, the forensic psychiatrist. But she was not a fully developed character. And the plot which had a few minor hits at possible suspense never gelled and just lost me.

Reviewers say this is an exceptional thriller with shocks and twists galore. I don't know where they were. Maybe they all popped up in the last half but a reader should not be boringly led on for half a novel before the action begins. I hate to trash a novel and that really isn't what I am doing here. I thought the idea had promise and feel that the writer can write as I said but I can in no way call this book a thriller. It certainly was not the worst book of the year as someone else said, just not the best from this author. The promised exciting suspenseful plot just did not happen.

It is very sad to pick up a book you highly anticipate reading just to be led nowhere. I leave it up to you to form your own opinion.

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meg Gardiner introduces a new heroine, forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett, June 22, 2008

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

I am one of those people who read Stephen King's recommendation in "Entertainment Weekly" regarding Meg Gardiner's work and had her first five paperbacks shipped across the pond because they were not available in the United States (and it never dawned on me to look north of the border instead of the other side of Atlantic to acquire them). The news that picking up "The Dirty Secrets Club," our first Gardiner novel in hardback, would mean the introduction of a new leading lady actually made sense to me because there are only so many times she could put Evan Delaney through the wringer without it becoming a bit much (besides, she had pretty much run out of family and friends to be threatened). Still, we do get a cameo from a major player in the other novels, so we are still firmly ensconced in Meg Gardiner's version of California.

Another type of person that I am is the type who takes the dust jacket off of a new book and put it someplace safe so that (a) nothing bad can happen to it and (b) I can avoid reading what the dust jacket has to say about the story in the book so that I can be surprised. On the basis of her first five novels I am going to read anything Gardiner wants to write, but for those who want to start here instead of with the other paperbacks I can simply introduce our heroine. Jo Beckett is a forensic psychiatrist, who is hired by the San Francisco Police Department to perform psychological autopsies when there is a question as to whether a death is a suicide or a murder. When a rather spectacular death takes place that appears to be a completely shocking suicide, Jo is called to the scene, never suspecting that she has just jumped aboard the tip of the iceberg. The idea of psychological autopsies should be enough of a hook for you, and the big bang opening you can discover when you read the book.

"The Dirty Secrets Club" strikes me as just asking to be adapted into a motion picture, although these days the best place for Gardiner's work might be on the small screen. However, the downside to this is that when everything hits the fan it is just too much of a cinematic contrivance for me. Not to say that is a bad cinematic contrivance as such things go, but that I expected better from Gardiner. Even at that point it was only a half-point deduction, and I was ready to round down because of the deus ex machina that pops up at the key moment, not so much to save the day, but to give our heroine a brief but necessary respite, which again was a bit too convenient for my taste. Fortunately the whole mystery of the Dirty Secret's Club is nice and complex and I like the way Jo unravels it. The sense of pacing remains the same as Gardiner's previous novels and the biggest change stylistically is that this time the story is not told in first person, which is disappointing only because one of the things I really loved about those other novels is that Evan Delaney is a kindred spirit in the wicked sense of humor department. The idea of a psychological autopsy is certainly interesting, and hopefully in future Jo Beckett novels Gardiner well delve into that fascinating process more before the non-stop action finale.