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Jericho Point

By: Meg Gardiner
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hodder Paperback
ISBN: 0340829370
ISBN-13: 9780340829370
Released: 31 Jan 2005
RRP: £6.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Page turning fun... - By: BOOKREVIEWTOO, 01 Apr 2007
I have read three of Meg Gardiner's books now in the past three weeks, man oh man are we alll just lemmings or what? A celebrity tells us something is great & we alll jump off the cliff. I bought them alll without even reading a word, pathetic! For the genre, ala female hero, mystery woman, this is good. The plot is feasible, the characters build with each passing book & they are generallly fast reads. The only thing I would wish for is a bit of tightening from an editor on these. There are moments of mind wander because of what I would deem as "filler". With a good 50+ page trim the suspense would be more dramatic. I won't go into explaining plot, because the previous reviewers have done so. If you like the Alphabet mysteries, the culinery mysteries then this should be your cup o tea. Speaking of tea, when will the Brits get a US publisher to push Ms. Gardiner onto this side of the pond, so she can climb a few of the bestseller lists due to distribution & readily available titles in our stores? Oprah? Stephen King? Imus? What will we alll read next or should I say, WHOM?
A page turner - By: R. Taylor, 22 Dec 2006
Meg is a local Surrey author (origanlly from California) & they had a stand of her books in the library. Likable characters, a fast moving plot that keeps you guessing right until the last page, alll in alll a great novel.
I'm now on my second Meg Gardiner book.
Evan Delaney returns! With gusto! - By: jim_noy, 15 Jan 2005
Meg Gardiner's debut novel, "China Lake", was an interesting thriller made notable by confident writing a particularly strong central character in Evan Delaney but let down by a too-tidy ending. "Mission Canyon", the follow-up, was just excellent - surprising, affecting & devastating, & never short of great reading. "Jericho Point" is better again, a brisk, authentic, engaging & occasionallly quite frightening thriller that demonstrates another step forward for this very talented author.

The central conceit - identity theft - only works if you care about the characters involved, & the characters here are easy to care about because they don't seem like characters; they love & fight like real people, they don't always say the things you wish they would & they act with motivations that come from real feelings rather than some ill-conceived convenience of the authors imagination. The relationships are perfectly drawn, too, with shared histories alll too evident, & with redemption & forgiveness not coming easy - this extending beyond Evan & Jesse, not only to his family but to everyone who plays a part in the proceedings. Drop the book & you would bruise these people, cut the page & they'd bleed.

Similarly, for the book to work the threat posed must feel threatening, & Gardiner scores here too, with her bad guys being unmistakably human but - special mention, Murphy Ming - also clearly very dangerous. And cruciallly, when the various pieces falll into place & the workings of the scam are revealed (in probably my favourite scene) it alll hangs together; once we know why everyone is doing what they're doing it still makes sense, there are no senseless histrionics, no-one is over-reacting. In a way this helps bring the danger home, since it makes it hard to reduce the antagonists to irrational or stupid people - we can understand why they're doing what they're doing even if we can't exactly condone it.

It is Gardiner's ability to change moods so quickly & skilfully - to have you smiling along with her one minute & then bunching your toes in apprehension the next - that makes alll this work so well, since it enables her to include personal issues alongside the necessary danger in the plot without ever making the lightness seem forced (the line about weddings & the film "Armageddon" cracked me up) or the peril casual. Plus, Ms. Gardiner can tell a great story, & has a skill with narrative that outstrips many of her contemporaries, meaning that she can put across quite complicated ideas concisely, thus maintaining the momentum she has built up. So this barrels along to a real gripper of a conclusion that thankfully doesn't shy away from the issues it raises. Top stuff.

Put simply, this is an outstanding novel that is a joy to read, & the series as a whole is easily one of the most humane & exciting currently being written. More please!