Meg Gardiner

Meg Gardiner was born in Oklahoma and raised in Santa Barbara, California. She graduated from Stanford University and Stanford Law School.

She practiced law in Los Angeles and taught writing at the University of California Santa Barbara. She’s a former collegiate cross-country runner and a three time Jeopardy! champion. She divides her time between London and Austin, Texas.

Gardiner's new novel is The Shadow Tracer.

Earlier this month I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

Heart in my throat, I’ve been reading T. Jefferson Parker’s Border Quartet. These novels—about sheriff’s deputy Charlie Hood and his work with the ATF against gunrunning to the narcotrafficantes—are wise, taut, and beautifully written. They’re about the violent clash between worlds. Lawmen and outlaws. American cops and Mexican drug lords. Struggling, honorable humans and—maybe—a journeyman devil. They’re tough and emotionally true. They’re also a master class in suspense. Any novelist who wants to improve his or her skills should read Iron River and annotate the ways that Parker tightens the screws and keeps the reader turning pages, desperate with dread and hope, dying to know what comes next.

I’m also racing through A Storm of Swords, book three in George R.R. Martin’s series, because my son gave me a week to catch up with the story before he starts telling me all the spoilers from this week’s Game of Thrones episode. So I’d better get back to it.

Visit Meg Gardiner's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: The Shadow Tracer.

--Marshal Zeringue