The Dirty Secrets Club Hardback - 2008

by Meg Gardiner

Introducing the writer Stephen King trumpets as 'the next suspense superstar'

Recently Stephen King devoted an entire Entertainment Weekly columnto Meg Gardiner, proclaiming her 'as good as Michael Connellyand far better than Janet Evanovich.' How is it possible, he wondered,that this Californian was published only in Britain? Startingnow, suspense fans on this side of the pond can get their fix righthere: Dutton is proud to introduce Gardiner's brand-new series heroine,Jo Beckett, in The Dirty Secrets Club.

An ongoing string of high-profile and very public murder-suicideshas San Francisco even more rattled than a string of recent earthquakes:A flamboyant fashion designer burns to death, clutching thebody of his murdered lover. A superstar 49er jumps off the GoldenGate Bridge. And most shocking of all, a U.S. attorney launches herBMW off a highway overpass, killing herself and three others.

Enter forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett, hired by the SFPD to cut opennot the victim's body but the victim's life. Jo's job is to completethe psychological autopsy, shedding light on the circumstances ofany equivocal death. Soon she makes a shocking discovery: All thesuicides belonged to something called the Dirty Secrets Club, agroup of A-listers with nothing but money and plenty to hide. As thedeaths continue, Jo delves into the disturbing motives behind thisshadowy group until she receives a letter containing a dark secretJo thought she'd left deep in her past, and ending with the mostchilling words of all: 'Welcome to the Dirty Secrets Club.'