Shatter by Michael Robotham

Protagonist: Joe O’Loughlin
Setting: West Country
Rating: 5.0


There is a moment when all hope disappears, all pride is gone, all expectation, all faith, all desire. I own that moment. It belongs to me. That’s when I hear the sound. The sound of a mind breaking.

It’s not a loud crack like when bones shatter or a spine fractures or a skull collapses. And it’s not something soft and wet like a heart breaking. It’s a sound that makes you wonder how much pain a person can endure; a sound that shatters memories and lets the past leak into the present; a sound so high that only the hounds of hell can hear it.

Can you hear it? Someone is curled up in a tiny ball crying softly into an endless night.

Joe O’Loughlin, who we met in Robotham’s first book, The Suspect, is back, this time teaching college psychology as his Parkinson’s disease gains on him. He’s asked by police to help talk down a woman who is perched on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, naked except for her Jimmy Choo shoes and with the word “slut” written across her stomach in lipstick. Even stranger, she’s talking into a cell phone. O’Loughlin is unable to save her; she jumps to her death. A few days later, her business partner is found dead, also naked, hanging from a tree in a park.

Why would these women kill themselves, seemingly on the orders of a person on the other end of their cell phones? With police, and the help of friend Vincent Ruiz, a retired chief inspector, O’Loughlin figures out the how, then the why and finally the who. From there, it’s a cat-and-mouse game with one of the most chilling villains I’ve come across lately. This is a man who has come mentally unhinged, and there’s no reasoning with him. The book’s title refers to the killer’s M.O.: he “shatters” the psyche of his victims. After O’Loughlin is able to prevent a third murder, the villain strikes close to home. At this point, the tension is so high that, as a reader, I wasn’t able to come up for breath until the end.

I knew Robotham was a good writer, but after his last book, The Night Ferry, I was a bit disappointed. This book has put him back on my list of must-read crime writers. Shatter is far and away his best. If you listen to audiobooks, then I further recommend “reading” it in that form. The narrator, Sean Barrett, only enhances the story. There’s one point where O’Loughlin and the villain are having a rapid-fire conversation; Barrett modulates the voices enough that you always know who is speaking.

This book gets a perfect score from me. In fact, it’s the best book I’ve read so far this year.

August reads

The Sister by Poppy Adams (debut novel)
Protagonist: Virginia Stone
Setting: Dorset, England
Rating: 4.0
This book takes place in the space of six days and revolves around Virginia (Ginny), a reclusive moth expert, and her sister, Vivien, who after a 47-year estrangement, returns to the crumbling manor that was once the family home. Having lived alone for years, Ginny has sold off almost all of the furniture, closed off most of the rooms and never opens the front door to those who come calling. Into her carefully structured life comes Vivien, who had always been the more lively and headstrong daughter. Flashbacks, as narrated by Ginny, provide a tale of these two sisters and their parents. Family secrets come out. Beyond this, there is not much I can say about this modern gothic tale – to say much else would give it away. I will say this: the tale is ambiguous, leaving much to the reader to infer. While I enjoyed The Sister – so much, that I was unable to put it down while reading it – it still vexed me a bit that the author doesn’t really answer all the questions. It’s up to you, dear reader, to figure things out.


The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham (audio)
Protagonist: Det. Alisha Barba
Setting: London and Amsterdam
Rating: 3.4
The Night Ferry is the third of four books in which Australian author Michael Robotham employs a neat concept: each book takes a minor character from a previous book and makes them the protagonist. Alisha Barba was Det. Insp. Vincent Ruiz's sidekick in the previous book, Lost. Wounded in the last book, the young detective is recovering at home when she gets a letter from her estranged friend Cate pleading with her to attend their high school reunion. But at the reunion, Cate and her husband are run down by a motorist. Later, at the hospital, Alisha learns that Cate was faking her pregnancy, even wearing a prosthesis belly. This takes her to Amsterdam, in a complicated plot involving baby smuggling. I've really liked Robotham's previous books, but the plot here was lackluster, and didn't grab me. Alisha, however, is a wonderfully drawn character, and Robotham fans might want to read this just for her story.

A Mind to Murder by P.D. James (2nd in series)
Protagonist: Adam Dagliesh
Setting: Steen Clinic, London
Rating: 3.6
This is only James' second novel, and while it doesn't compare to her later novels (full of rich characters and interesting settings), this is still a better-than-average mystery. It's a locked-room variation, with the murder having taken place inside the Steen Clinic, with a limited number of suspects. The victim is the psychiatric clinic's administrator, Enid Bolam, an unbending woman who is not well-liked. There are plenty of suspects, but James gives us a neat twist at the end. It's certainly not the first P.D. James book I would recommend, but it was enjoyable.


The Risk of Darkness by Susan Hill (3rd in series)
Protagonist: Det. Chief Insp. Simon Serrailler
Setting: Lafferton, England
Rating: 4.6
Hill's books are not the usual traditional mystery stories, and that puts off many crime fans. By my rating, though, you can see I very much like the Hill novels. This one picks up a few months after The Pure in Heart, which dealt with the kidnapping of 9-year-old David Angus. In this book, there's another kidnapping, but this time the kidnapper is caught -- more by blind luck than great policing. This happens fairly early in the book, so the novel is not a mystery nor a police procedural. Instead, Hill deals with the way crimes affect the people involved and their families -- both the victims' and the criminals' families. These novels are also very much a look at the Serrailler family and this one continues in that vein, with some major happenings. I wouldn't recommend this book without reading the others that came before. If you're a fan already, this one doesn't disappoint.

Chill Factor by Stuart Pawson (audio, 7th in the series)
Protagonist: Det. Insp. Charlie Priest
Setting: Heckley (Yorkshire)
Rating: 4.4
Salesman Tony Silkstone readily confesses to murder -- for killing the man who murdered his wife. To most, he's a hero for doing so. But a small clue leads Priest to believe there's more to the story. This is a methodical, plodding police procedural -- done by an author who's wonderful at these. Pawson brings his characters to life with great wit. He's one of the best with one-liners. For example, this from Priest on a colleague's love life: "I didn't ask who 'she' was. Pete's love life has more dead ends and branch lines than the London Underground." Or this on eating at a Persian restaurant: "I paid the bill, which went a long way toward compensating the proprietor for the oil wells he lost when the Shah was deposed." This is a great series, and one that doesn't necessarily need to be read in order.

A Death in Vienna by Frank Tallis
Protagonists: Det. Oskar Rheinhardt, psychoanalyst Max Lieberman
Setting: Vienna, 1902
Rating: 4.5
This book is a traditional locked-room mystery: Medium Charlotte Lowenstein is found dead in her locked room, with what appears might be a suicide note. Yet there's a bullet wound to her body. However, there's no gun and, when an autopsy is done, there's no bullet in her body. Those in Lowenstein's circle think it's a supernatural killer, but Rheinhardt, assisted by his friend Lieberman (who reminds one of Sherlock Holmes) thinks otherwise. This is an interesting book, with Vienna beautifully described and with a bit of history about the developing science of psychoanalysis. I was really immersed in the characters and, with one thread left hanging, I'll have to seek out the second book in the series.

Rating system:
5.0: Wow!
4.0: A book I'd recommend
3.0: Mediocre to good
2.0: Pretty Bad