The Dirty Secrets Club, Meg Gardiner

Her first book in the Jo Beckett series, this is vastly different than her Unsub novels and not nearly in the same realm of written form. A narrative that really provided no sense of urgency and thriller. High-profile and public murder-suicides in San Francisco where you never really care about the character’s themselves. Also, there’s a monkey in it who becomes kind of a hero in the whole thing. That alone made me shake my head. The DSC members are all wealthy and arrogant. Jo Beckett, who is a forensic psychiatrist, has some legs within her backstory, but she’s constantly pulling out these cheesy one-liners and her actions are too obvious and plain. The killer is someone who is almost justified in knocking off the hypermodern, nouveau rich. Two of the DSC members had robbed him, tortured him, and ruined his body. The rich and infamous were playing games and with their dirty secrets – the type of people who hid behind the veneer of fancy businesses and shell corporations. My suggestion is to skip this series, and read Heat 2, and her Unsub novels. Her writing style has improved significantly from where she was at this time in her writing career. This novel left a bad taste in my mouth so I’m getting back to her Unsub books – I know I won’t be disappointed.