Shatter by Michael Robotham

An intriguing and fast-paced thriller, Shatter brings back Joe O’Loughlin, the star of Robotham’s earlier novel, Suspect. Shatter works just fine as a stand-alone, with only a few references to the events of the previous story.

In this novel, O’Loughlin has left his clinical psychology practice in London to pursue a quieter life in the West Country of England. Dealing with his advancing Parkinson’s disease, teaching part-time at a local university, and caring for his two daughters take most of his time until he is called on to talk down a suicidal woman on a bridge. He fails and she jumps. Soon after, the woman’s teenaged daughter contacts O’Loughlin and convinces him that her mother was coerced, leading him into a complex investigation and ultimate face-off with a killer whose weapon is words.

As a thriller, this book succeeds quite nicely. There are a couple of scenes that are disturbingly graphic. The plotting is complex, but not too convoluted. It does adhere to standard thriller-genre conventions (flawed hero vs. preternaturally talented killer who soon takes the contest personally), but does so with enough flair and originality to be entertaining. Shatter is well worth reading.

Zade, Reviewer

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