china

CHINA LAKE

Meg Gardiner

Hodder&Stoughton £12.99 hbk

Reviewed by Mike Stotter


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If you like fiesty female-led plots, you might enjoy Meg Gardiner's debut novel. It all get's off to a flying start with Evan Delaney taking care of her brother's young son Luke whilst his parents are going through a messy divorce. A religious cult named The Remnant are in town creating mayhem especially kicking up a fuss about Evan's newly published novel. Then they turn nastier when they bring young Luke into it. Evan is disturbed to find out that his mother, Tabitha, is a member of the cult and hiding behind its power is determined to get her son back by any means.

What follows is a thriller by the numbers; a sequence of events featuring Evan, Tabitha, The Remnant, Jesse (Evan's wheelcahir-bound lover) and air jock Brian, the boy's father. There's hardly any breathing space in the book, it's full of twists and turns, alarming revelations and expositions. Small-town America is a supporting character as is the US air base of China Lake.

It's an exhausting time for Evan Delaney who is tough, quick tempered and resourceful. Though how much I would trust her to be my lawyer I wouldn't say: strange given Meg Gardiner's own background in law. There are some critical clues she overlooks and you wonder if it is plausible that almost single-handedly Evan Delaney could take on the fanatically force of The Remnant, solve a murder, save those she loves (not to mention most of North America) and still come out unscathed, hmm...it made me wonder about this superwoman. But then again, there's the second novel….