Together they delve into the case and soon Harper realizes her presence at the club that night was no accident. He too remembers there was a third gunman but due to a traumatic brain injury called Fregoli Syndrome or face blindness his recollections are deemed to be unreliable. She is convinced it has something to do with the third gunman she saw, but since other survivor reports did not support her claim, the police are uninterested in pursuing what they believe is a figment of her imagination.īelieving she is on to something, Harper contacts Aiden Garrison, a policeman who was in the club on the night of the shooting. A year later at a memorial service for Drew, she sees a figure watching from the shadows and wonders who it is and why they are there. The bartender, Harper Flynn, tries to move her injured boyfriend, Drew, from the line of gunfire only to lose him to the devastation of the blaze that followed. Gardiner opens PHANTOM INSTINCT with a shoot-out and deadly fire in a trendy nightclub. From there it was a small leap to follow Harper Flynn in PHANTOM INSTINCT, Gardiner’s latest release. In my recent introduction to Meg’s stand-alone novels, RANSOM RIVER and SHADOW TRACER, I found what I consider true thriller, kick ass heroines: Rory Mackenzie and Sarah Keller. That is, until I discovered Meg Gardiner. Yes, I was getting action, but in my experience, most of the kicking ass was done by men. Then I found thrillers, starting with David Morrell and Jon Land’s Blaine McCracken.

I remember reading Nancy Drew and quickly moving on to the Hardy Boys because I craved more action. I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember.

Ransom River by Meg Gardiner