A Jo Beckett Thriller
by Meg Gardiner
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2011
368 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Autumn Reiniger expects something special for her twenty-first birthday. Daddy's already bought her the sports car, the apartment, and admission to the private college where she parties away her weekends. Now she wants excitement, and she's going to get it.
Her father signs up Autumn and five friends for an "ultimate urban reality" game: a simulated drug deal, manhunt, and jailbreak. It's a high-priced version of cops and robbers, played with fake guns and fast cars on the streets of San Francisco. Edge Adventures alerts the SFPD ahead of time that a "crime situation" is underway, so the authorities can ignore the squealing tires and desperate cries for help.
Which is convenient for the gang of real kidnappers zeroing in on their target and a mammoth payday. Because what Daddy doesn't know is that someone has spotted his hedge fund's bulging profits, and the path to those riches runs right through Daddy's Little Girl.
Working on a case nearby is forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett and her partner Gabe Quintana. When the pair encounters a suspicious group of men carting six sullen college kids to the woods for a supposed wilderness adventure, alarm bells ring. Jo takes a closer look, and winds up with an invite to Autumn Reiniger's twenty-first birthday party - a party they may never leave.
"[A] strong thriller... Gardiner really gets the adrenaline pumping." - Publishers Weekly
"The premise is a little over the top, but mystery fans will still stay up late reading Gardiner's breathless latest." - Booklist
"In her eighth novel, Gardiner... spins a thrilling, fast-paced tale about what can happen when we tempt fate. Fans of Iris Johansen will enjoy Jo Beckett's propensity for knocking down trouble and landing squarely on her feet." - Library Journal
"The mind-bogglingly improbable setup and the number of wild cards in the mix guarantee endless plot twists, most of them so diabolically engineered that you'll forget how wafer-thin the characters are." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about The Nightmare Thief was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Meg Gardiner is the author of eight previous novels of suspense, including the Edgar Award winner China Lake. Originally from Santa Barbara, California, she now lives in London. You can visit her website at www.meggardiner.com.
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