China Lake

After giving up her law career to work as a legal researcher and science fiction writer, Evan Delaney is also helping her fighter pilot brother, Brian, raise his six-year-old son, Luke. But soon Luke's mother, Tabitha, reappears as a member of the Remnant, a fundamentalist religious group that targets the funeral of Evan's friend Claudine, who died of AIDS. Led by the fanatical pastor Peter Wyoming, the Remnant preaches of a coming apocalypse and urges its members to cleanse themselves of all things satanic. Tabitha demands custody of Luke; the church attacks Evan for her “sacrilegious” books and Brian for his role in the evil known as the federal government. Things heat up when a member of the Remnant is murdered, and the police arrest Brian as the key suspect. Gardiner nimbly turns what could be a tired plot into a suspenseful thriller, thanks in part to the quick-witted—and even quicker tempered—Evan.

Gardiner's stand-alone novel, The Dirty Secrets Club (Dutton, July), will be the author's first simultaneous release in the U.S. and the U.K. Obsidian plans to release the remaining Evan Delaney novels monthly. China Lake 's June release will be followed by Mission Canyon in July, Jericho Point in August, Crosscut in September and, in October, Kill Chain .