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Evan Delany is dead, washed up on Jericho Point on California's beautiful coast. But in fact, Evan Delany is very much alive and pissed off that someone has appropriated her identity. So starts Meg Gardiner's chaotic and thoroughly enjoyable third novel featuring investigator Evan Delany. The novel describes what is perhaps a worst case scenario for identity theft and Evan's attempts to track down the person who has victimized her. JERICHO POINT details almost every aspect of this new and so insidious crime - forgery, scams and credit cards, documenting the helplessness of police and how credit bureaus can only monitor abuse and not prevent it. The book is a confusing cacophony of identity and personality that involves Evan's crippled lover and his brother, jet pilots, a quintessential California rock star trying to stage a comeback and a mysterious person that appears and disappears, leaving traces of evil in his wake. Almost every character in the book has an alternate, a contrasting character that offers conflict and comparison or an internal conflict that causes confusion and pain. Jesse refused to marry Evan after a biking accident left him with a broken back and he loves her passionately but can't admit his love, even to himself. Jesse contrasts with his brother PJ who wastes his life and the love his family showers upon him. Evan loves Jesse, but won't say the words. She keeps Jesse at a distance as she dances a fantasy with Marc Dupree, the African American jet pilot introduced in CHINA LAKE, Gardiner's first book. There are moments of keen humor in Gardiner's book, intended or not. Ricky, the aging rock star is so swollen by his indulgent lifestyle that he almost strangles inside an exercise suit and must be cut out. And there are some great lines - "Every inch of me howled" is how Evan describes her body the day after she is beaten. And beaten she is, often and hard. Yet every time Evan gets back up to fight another day, to fight against those who are trying to take over her life and to fight for Jesse, who wants to end his in a black river of pain. The novel's progression might seem predictable, once the reader has worked out the characters and their relationships. The ending though is not - the confusion of identities and roles will continue to the last pages and you'll enjoy every twist and turn. Meg Gardiner's two earlier Evan Delaney novels were CHINA LAKE (2002) and MISSION CANYON (2003). COYOTE ROAD will be released in September 2005. Despite the California setting of Gardiner's books, only large print and audio cassette editions of the first two titles have been released in the United States. Here's hoping that Gardiner's great mysteries will soon be more widely available in the US.
Reviewed by Maureen Battistella, April 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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