Jericho Point: An Evan Delaney Novel

You won't find great social commentery or philosophical insights in Meg Gardiner's books, but in this as all, you'll find thoroughly entertaining thrills, chills, and spills.This does delve into the identity theft theme, but hardly stops there as our hapless heroine is pursued by sadistic loan sharks as she tries to straighten out the mess caused by fraudulant use of her credit cards. Strictly fun reading.

Free lance attorney Evan Delaney runs to where her lover's brother PJ Armstrong is partying after receiving his distress call. When she arrives, he locks himself in the bathroom before she persuades him to tell her what is wrong. As he talks she realizes he is stoned, but insists he saw a woman fall off the balcony. When she goes to call the police, he stops her saying he is not sure whether his imagination ran wild. At the law firm where she works part time, her boss shows her checks made out to Evan Delaney from Datura, Inc. The client is willing to look the other way if Evan returns the money. The only problem is that she never received the checks to cash them. When she looks up her finances and credit statements, she finds checks and credit card bills she never used to buy merchandise. Evan knows someone stole her idtntity and then the body of Brittany surfaces with credit cards in Evan's name. Creditors are after the real Evan and the law is looking into her allegedly passing bad checks. Finally a drug kingpin demands she pay back with interest the money he lent her. As much as she loves Jesse, evidence mounts that his brother was involved. An Evan Delaney novel is always a treat to read as the heroine knows when to be tough but also shows her fears especially if she or someone she cares about is going to be hurt. Her inner strength enables her to face ugly truths and nasty people while doing something to rectify the mess. The story line is fast-paced but driven by the heroine as she goes about cleaning up a mess while Meg Gardiner strongly warns readers that identity theft does not always denote stranger as it also can be an inside job. Harriet Klausner

I have read three of Meg Gardiner's books now in the past three weeks, man oh man are we all just lemmings or what? A celebrity tells us something is great and we all jump off the cliff. I bought them all without even reading a word, pathetic! For the genre, ala female hero, mystery woman, this is good. The plot is feasible, the characters build with each passing book and they are generally fast reads. The only thing I would wish for is a bit of tightening from an editor on these. There are moments of mind wander because of what I would deem as "filler". With a good 50+ page trim the suspense would be more dramatic. I won't go into explaining plot, because the previous reviewers have done so. If you like the Alphabet mysteries, the culinery mysteries then this should be your cup o tea. Speaking of tea, when will the Brits get a US publisher to push Ms. Gardiner onto this side of the pond, so she can climb a few of the bestseller lists due to distribution and readily available titles in our stores? Oprah? Stephen King? Imus? What will we all read next or should I say, WHOM? This series will enhance anyone's vacation beside the beach and or pool.

By the time you get to "Jericho Point," the third of the Evan Delaney thrillers penned by Meg Gardiner, the review of her work that Stephen King put in "Entertainment Weekly" has disappeared from our rear view mirrors. If you started at the very beginning with "China Lake" and then consumed "Mission Canyon" as well, then all you really need to know is that "Jericho Point" is more of the same. The front cover promises "Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll. And Murder," and that is exactly what we get. On a dark and stormy night Evan shows up to a wild party, summoned by some stranger because it seems her boyfriend has locked himself in a bathroom. But it turns out the sad drunk on the floor is not Jesse Blackburn, but his brother PJ, who says that some girl went off the balcony, over the edge, all the way down into the waves. Things get considerably worse from there and I really do not want to give away more of the story because you should just read the book and find out for yourself. There is a really great hook for this story, but I never bothered to look at the back cover because I did not need to be persuaded to buy this one and I think you should enjoy discovering it as you read it. What I can say is that whereas "China Lake" was about Evan getting in the way of people out to get her brother Brian and her young nephew Luke, and "Mission Canyon" was about people going after Jesse, this time around it is Evan herself who is the target for a whole lot of people. Gardiner really puts her heroine through the wringer this time and hopefully this is as bad as things ever get for Evan on a personal (and physical) level, because I do not know if I can take much more. That is without even taking into account the constant turmoil that is her love life with Jesse, especially since Marc Dupree is back again as part of the cavalry. As always the action is pretty much nonstop as Gardiner finds a way of adding fuel to the fire in virtually every chapter of the book. Just be careful not to start reading any of her books in bed at night because you might have trouble finding a chapter where you can feel comfortable stopping. I have been mulling over the idea that "Jericho Point" is the best of the trio of Evan Delaney thrillers I have read so far, but I do not really have a sense that it is noticeably better than its predecessors. Certainly the fact that the risk to our heroine makes this one even more personal than the previous two books is part of the equation, but overall I think Gardiner is just on top of her game. These have all been great reads, not only because they are fast paced but also because of her wicked sense of humor (e.g., Evan whole "Flaming Asshole" routine when she interrupts a lunch at the San Ysidro Ranch). One of the things I love about these books is that only Gardiner's readers know how funny Evan is, because she thinks all of her funny stuff rather than saying it outloud. Plus the "Star Trek" panties are just so damn endearin

I, like everyone else, read the EW article by Stephen King. That is why within a week I received and read Meg Gardiner's first three books: China Lake, Mission Canyon and Jericho point. I can't put them down! I love the Stephanie Plum series but these are darker, much more complex and thrilling. I can't wait to read the other two that are being shipped and released! I wish Meg Gardiner had an american publisher and that everyone was reading her books. Fun, fun, fun! These are great summertime, read on vacation or next to the pool books! Get them now!!!!