Meg Gardiner is an Edgar Award-winning American crime writer, who lives in Austin, Texas. Her best-known books are the Evan Delaney novels. In June 2008, she published the first novel in a new series, featuring forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett. The second Jo Beckett novel, The Memory Collector, was published in June 2009, the third, The Liar's Lullaby, in June 2010, and the most recent Beckett book, The Nightmare Thief, was published in June 2011. More recently she has published three stand-alone novels: Ransom River, The Shadow Tracer, and Phantom Instinct.
Gardiner's first novel, China Lake, received the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original novel upon its publication in the United States in 2008. Her first Jo Beckett novel, The Dirty Secrets Club, won the 2009 The Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice award for Best Procedural Novel. Her ninth novel, The Nightmare Thief, won the 2012 Audie Award for Thriller/Suspense Audiobook of the Year.