Crosscut

Evan Delaney #4

by Meg Gardiner

For Evan Delaney, China Lake was a tough place to grow up. But she didn't realixe just how tough until, returning to the desert military base for her high school reunion, she discovers that a disturbing number of her classmates have died young.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Adult

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Meg Gardiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen thrillers. Shadowheart, her latest novel, is part of the UNSUB series featuring FBI agent Caitlin Hendrix. The Real Book Spy calls it “A mind-trip of a story.” Booklist says, “As always, the writing is exquisite and the story is perfectly crafted.” UNSUB, the first novel in the series, won the 2018 Barry Award for Best Thriller. The Dark Corners of the Night was bought by Amazon Studios for development as an hour-long television drama.

Heat 2 is a prequel/sequel to the film Heat, co-authored with the film’s writer/director, Michael Mann. Booklist’s starred review calls it “Riveting… the fully fleshed human stories support and even transcend the often-breathtaking action.” The Associated Press says, “Slick as a Neil McCauley heist and as intense as a Vincent Hanna chase, ‘Heat 2’ is just dynamite.” It debuted at #1 on the NYT best seller list.

Meg is the author of the Evan Delaney series, the Jo Beckett novels, and several stand alones. China Lake won the 2009 Edgar award for Best Paperback Original. The Nightmare Thief won the 2012 Audie Award for Thriller/Suspense audiobook of the year. Phantom Instinct was one of O, the Oprah magazine's "Best Books of Summer."

Meg was born in Oklahoma and raised in Santa Barbara, California. A graduate of Stanford Law School, she practiced law in Los Angeles and taught writing at the University of California Santa Barbara. She's also a three-time Jeopardy! champion. She lives in Austin, Texas.

Find Meg on Facebook: Facebook.com/MegGardinerBooks Twitter: @MegGardiner1 and Instagram: @Meggardiner1.




Series:
* UNSUB
* Evan Delaney
* Jo Beckett

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

With a fucked up cross-dressing (horrific attempt at writing a trans character?!?!?!) killer I was really turned OFF.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the fourth Evan Dalaney novel, Evan returns to China Lake for her high school reunion and discovers that the death toll among her classmates is unusually high. After two classmates are brutally murdered, Evan suspects something is up and begins to piece together what might be killing her classmates.

It all stems back to a day when the group took a field trip to the local Navy base and were exposed to some kind of experiment. The results are still haunting and affecting the group to this day and it also created a serial killer who is hunting down the people on the trip and slowly eliminating them. Evan is forced to dig into her past to find answers and to try and stop the killer before he or she kills again. And when Evan discovers she's pregnant, things become even more urgent.

As a check your brain at the door and just enjoy the ride, "Crosscut" works well. But the problems of having a first-person perspective begin to break through as the novel progresses. The story requires that some events unfold outside of Evan's viewpoint and Meg Gardiner shows us those events. It's all about upping the suspence quotient, but unfortunately it proves distracting in the novel's final third. Gardiner is forced to jump between three perspectives in the novel's final pages and it makes the ending seem a bit forced and overly melodramatic.

But the elements that come before it make it worth enduring some clunky writing in the final pages. The story unfolds at a quick pace that keeps the pages turning and will hook you right in. The overall conspiracy nature of what's going on is fascinating and done well enough to keep you guessing about certain elements, all the way up to the final revelations.

[Miriam Smith (A Mother’s Musings) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! This is exactly how I like my serial killer thrillers to be like! Gory, fast paced, thrilling and twists and turns all the way. This was a roller coaster ride that i thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend!!!

[Karen Jarvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d forgotten how graphic Meg’s books are. Scary concept. Lockdown book 24

[Carl Alves · Rating 2 out of 5]

The basic premise of Crosscut is a pretty good one. Evan Delaney returns to China Lake for her 15 year high school reunion. When she goes there she realizes that many of her classmates have died under unusual circumstances. It all ties back to an explosion at the naval base where secret operations were being held during a class trip. Now, some of her classmates are being murdered pretty horrifically, and it all ties back to Coyote, a CIA operative that was exposed to the same thing that is harming Evan’s classmates.

Although the concept was pretty good, the execution in this novel is very flawed. My biggest issues was that it has massive believability and logic gaps about the size of a Mars crater. There were too many things, especially related to Coyote, that made me cringe as I read them because they were so utterly unrealistic. The character Coyote was also a poor one that lacked any shred of realism in terms of resembling an actual human being. Furthermore, the novel was riddled with clichés, especially the evil government entity that is so far off the books that nobody can even acknowledge that it exists, and the associated evil government characters that go along with these organizations. Ultimately, this is a novel I would skip.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street

[Sheila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Talk about a thriller. Wowza. When Evan returns to her hometown for her 15 year class reunion she has no idea what a terrorizing ride she would shortly be on. As If attending a class reunion is scary enough how about a serial killer taking out members of your class including 2 during the reunion. I loved this book.

There is something for everybody here. School rivalries, serial killers, really bizarre crime scenes, super soldiers, government conspiracies, classified lab experiments, family drama.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first book in this series way back in the day...Books 2 & 3 were stunning...thrillers that "thrilled" for sure...but this, this #4...was a jaw breaker! Bio-warfare....government/military hijinks/nasty shit....a Cover Up! No! Say it ain't so!...Damn this Meg Gardiner can write like a Beast....go, read this series (start at the beginning, please). I think that was China LakeChina Lake. Go forth and be thrilled, children.

I don't know how to post book covers here. I rarely post reviews...Deal with the shit

[Joshua Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, fast-paced page-turner of a book. Solid thriller.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been quite some time since I’ve dived into a Gardiner work, and man I’m sorry for that!!!

The story is packed, allowing not only a fleshing out of existing characters but a deeper understanding and sympathy/empathy for the newer ones. The mystery is tightly packed, although at times it felt a bit more editing could have culled down some of the length. Also, it’s VERY of the time, with some strong language used about the queer community that made me blush.

That aside, a very well written and well executed novel.

[Elaine Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really good read with so many twists and turns and non-stop action from the word go until the last page. Genetic modification or chemical warfare - I'll leave that decision to the next reader but needless to say a difficult book to put down with good characters and a good story

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled a bit with Crosscut, the fourth Evan Delaney book. I realize that it was originally written 15 years ago, and times were different. However, the transphobia was disturbing. I have a feeling that Gardiner did not intend to write that way at the time. At least, I hope that was not her intention. But Crosscut could definitely use a new edition acknowledging or editing the offensive parts.

That being said, Crosscut was full of twists and turns. It would have made an excellent movie, and I enjoyed the mystery.

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those high-school class reunions can be murder. That’s what Evan Delaney, a writer and amateur sleuth, discovered when she went home to China Lake, California to attend her 15-year reunion. The list of dead classmates is significantly longer than statistically plausible, and Evan and her ex-military, wheelchair-using boyfriend decide to look deeper into the deaths.

The creep factor runs high here as you learn about a serial killer who wants Evan’s classmates dead. There’s a reason. You see, when they were children, they visited a military installation near their elementary school, and many of them experienced exposure to a research project that should never have escaped a lab.

There’s a great subplot that deals with Evan’s new pregnancy—something everyone said was impossible because of the boyfriend’s particular paralysis. These characters are memorable, reasonably well developed, and they’ll be part of your life for a good amount of time after you close the book. I’ll let you decide whether you want to read the other three books in the series before you read this one; I don’t have strong feelings on that either way.

[Trish Goodgame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Evan Delaney returns in the new thriller from Meg Gardiner. For Evan, China Lake was a tough place to grow up. But she didn't realise just how tough until, returning to the desert military base for her high school reunion, she discovers that a disturbing number of her classmates have died young. The morning after the reunion another is found, savagely butchered. She is just the first. Someone in China Lake has a major axe to grind with the class of '91. And that includes Evan...

I read this back in 2013, so my memory is vague other than I remembered really liking books by this author.

[Alice Teets · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first was published, loved it, then promptly forgot the title and have been looking for it for the last decade. (My kids were toddlers way back them; I blame my brain fog on that.)

This was a great, creepy serial-killer-mutant-assassin book. The characters are flawed and wonderful, the story moves along quickly, and I can't recommend it enough.

Plus, it shows just how far people will go to save a child, even if the child is not theirs.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good book. It was legitimately horrifying and stomach churning gruesome without being too explicit. It was not scared to get dark or sad- I honestly shuddered and teared up throughout the story.

There was some yikes thrown in there, but it's a really good story, has an interesting plot and twists, and it goes at a great pace. It's very legitimately thrilling and tense.

[Conni Harness · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Moly, this author is sooo talented!!! Each progressive book seems more & more intense. Just when I think it cannot get freakier, it does!!! It just took me 12 or more to read the last 3 chapters. I had to keep putting it down. I have not hyperventilated this much since I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo!!! Seriously! The imagination of this author is off the charts!!!

[David Burnworth]

China Lake is a smallish town in the desert where a top-secret military operation took place and went wrong. Evan Delaney and a few of her classmates stumble upon it when sneaking away from a class field trip. Years and years later at a class reunion, the town of China Lake is turned upside down when former students are killed by a person affiliated with the project.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I figured out Coyote very early in the story, it didn’t detract from the fast-paced thriller. Love this author and she’s the best I’ve read in a long time. School reunions - glad I’ve never gone to any of mine

[Mike Krogh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each book gets better and better!

I didn’t think I would find an author who was able to start a series with a brilliant book, and, by book four, continue to keep me as riveted as now.

[Lynne Dekowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth Evan Delaney book certainly does not disappoint! You are on the edge of your seat almost from page 1. There is a little more insight into Evan’s relationship with her parents, which may explain her dynamic personality. Great book! Starting the fifth in the series immediately!

[Katie Kilcullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really not a fan of all the homophobic and transphobic undertones of this particular book - definitely not necessary for the plot. Disappointing. 3 Stars because otherwise I love this series and this author but I have a bad taste in my mouth now.

[Buff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too long, and the premise becomes over the top as it progresses.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of her best. More character depth and less SUPER unlikely to happen events. Enjoyed this one more than any of the others in the series. Can’t wait to read the next one.

[Crystal Milam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very gory.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fast-paced exciting read! It also, unfortunately, hasn't aged well due to certain anti-transgender adjectives and depictions.

[Robyn Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Audible

[remi · Rating 1 out of 5]

this would have been a five star read if it weren't for the transphobia

[Salahuddin Hourani]

ملاحظة لي: لم اقرا الكتاب بعد

مقترح من ستيفين كينغ

[Rev Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compelling characters, great writing!