Meg Gardiner

The Nightmare Thief Meg Gardiner

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 squealign 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 colelge 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 winner in every way. The Dirty Secrets Club is nuanced and layered - and a harrowing thriller that chews up the streets of San Francisco from the high-rises to the Tenderloin. Meg Gardiner makes every one of her characters leap alive off the page, and I personally am in love with the most compelling of them all, Jo beckett - the psychiatrist who analyzes dead people for the cops and who's willing to trade her cell phone for a cup of coffee. " -Jeffrey Deaver, New York Times bestselling author of The Sleeping Doll