Crosscut (Evan Delaney Mysteries) [Paperback]

Meg Gardiner is at it again, and you can thank your lucky stars that she is. "Crosscut" is Gardiner's fourth book in the Evan Delaney series and is her most action-packed, riveting thriller to date. Who knew that a class reunion could be so dangerous, and so brutal?

Delaney returns home to China Lake for her high school reunion, and finds murder and mayhem waiting. Someone is annihilating her classmates, one graduate at a time. As the body count adds up, Delaney feels the targeting scope on her. Who is it who is killing these kids from the California high desert? And why?

Gardiner pulls no punches in this book, attacking the reader's sensibilities as the killer mauls his victims. This is not a book for weak temperaments. Gardiner knows how to engage her readers--and then take them for a wild ride. Blood and Guts Patton has nothing on her. And yet, none of the gore is gratuitous. It drives her characters and her story.

As with her other books, Gardiner adds her own twist to the classic suspense thriller--humor, as only she can write it. Just when you think you can't take the violence or tension any more, along comes Cousin Tater or other comic relief, and you're shoulders drop from around your ears and you breathe a sigh of relief.

For a moment.

Then you're off again on Delaney's wild ride.

Since her first book, "China Lake", Gardiner has combined skillful plotting with excellent character development. She knows exactly who her characters are and writes them with such color and understanding that her readers also know them, and what to expect from them.

Like P.D. James and Ruth Rendell, Gardiner achieves more than mere thriller or mystery. Never run-of-the-mill, she continues to delight readers with excellent writing. She paints pictures and composes cacophony with mere words.

Gardiner never disappoints. Pick up her books and you're guaranteed thrills and chills. Is old Disneyland parlance, it's an E-ticket ride!

This really is first-rate thriller writing; occasionally brutal, consistently inventive, always honest. The darker aspects of proceedings are again balanced with just the right amount of humour (the “Airplane!” reference is, frankly, inspired) without ever being distasteful or interrupting the pressing tone. Any concerns I had that she may have been overloading the book in the first half were put to rest by a storming second half which simply does not let up, and which resolves everything skilfully and convincingly.

As ever, I cannot praise her characters too highly – Gardiner understands these people and their relationships perfectly, and conveys it all in a way that makes this novel about so much more than people getting killed. The impressive thing is how she does this without ever losing sight of the fact that the primary objective of any thriller is to thrill – she dovetails her plot and her characters almost seamlessly, giving the characters space and time to establish and distinguish themselves whilst the plot thrums in the background, ready to pounce out and blindside you at a moment’s notice. This means that you are never really on a sure footing with her, as she is free to hit you with an unexpected emotional punch when required, or to deliver a couple of great surprises. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Gardiner is getting stronger with every book – which is no mean feat when you consider how strongly she started with “China Lake” – and this is very likely to be the best thriller I will read this year. Sign me up now for whatever comes next.