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Shatter

Author: Michael Robotham
Publisher: Sphere
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

9 reviews
Sales Rank: 45518

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.9

ISBN: 1847441777
EAN: 9781847441775
ASIN: 1847441777

Publication Date: February 7, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: A BRAND NEW COPY DISPATCHED FROM THE UK WITHIN 48 HOURS BY ROYAL MAIL, OVERSEAS ORDERS SENT BY AIR MAIL.

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Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Flawless June 25, 2008
This is quite simply the best thriller I have read in a very long time, the pace is breathtaking, from the very first chapter I found it impossible to put down. Its the kind of book that even when you are not reading it you are thinking about the plot, and cant wait to pick it up again. I lent this to my wife who is not a thriller fan, and she read it in the shortest time, and we spent some time talking about the characters and events in the book. This is what reading a book should be about.
The villain is one of the most scary guys I have ever come across, You just know if he ever looks your way then you've pretty much had it. But his evil is not a physical threat, but a psychological one, he could destroy your life without even getting close.
This does make you wonder about Mr Robothams state of mind, to come up with something this devilish is a bit of a worry.
I have read every one of his books, and loved them all, but this is a class of its own. simply superb.

5 out of 5 stars

Move Over Tony Hill June 17, 2008
A (retired?) Clinical Psychologist in the early stages of Parkinson's Disease - a most unlikely hero. But that is exactly what former Professor Joe McLaughlin is. Drawn into a Police investigation of an apparent suicide that, becuase of Joe, turns out not to be a suicide - he personal and private life suffers as a result and his marriage is threatened. Comparisons with Val McDermids Tony Hill are unavoidable but for me, McLaughlin is a much rounder, deeper character and the use of psychology, albeit at times text book level, is much better. OK, at times the plot is predictable and there are some events that don't credit too much realism but over all this is yet another gripping novel of suspense from Robotham

3 out of 5 stars

Let down by sub standard editing May 4, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is the first Michael Robotham that I have read and I was not disappointed by the quality of the story. However, I have to comment on the quality of the editing of the book - honestly, if the author reads this, you should ask for a refund of whatever charges they levied on you. P26, the shopkeeper is reading the Sunday Mirror and yet on P28 the police say to him - If I'm working Saturdays, so can you....
The number of grammatical errors "the the" or "a a" or simply missing out conjunctions - it completely ruined the book for me. I found myself looking for the next error instead of being immersed by the book. Sloppy, sloppy, shoddy work by whoever was proof reading.
Hopefully, by the time they print the paperback version, someone from Sphere will have actually read the manuscript and made corrections - otherwise this author should go elsewhere.

2 out of 5 stars

I don't see it. April 25, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful

After I bought this and before I read it, I checked out Michael Robotham's website. Alarm bells started ringing for me when I saw he was endorsed by Peter James, in my opinion, the absolute worst crime writer in Britain today. Now, having read `Shatter', while it doesn't quite plum the depths of anything that James has produced, it is very poor.

The book starts with a woman about to jump off the Clifton suspension bridge. She's talking on the phone as O'Loughlin tries to talk her down. When he does finally get a response she says "you don't understand' and jumps...

Incidentally, we're also told that the psychiatrist overhears her saying on the phone "take her, not me", which you'd think would be a pretty big clue as to what's going on, but no! everyone wanders around scratching their heads, wondering about her motivation.

They writing style, for me, is genuinely awful. Robotham decides to write in the first person progressive (ie I splash through puddles, I hear the siren, etc etc) It's a cheap trick to try and put the reader there, at that moment. Unfortunately it doesn't work, it's just cliched and lazy. The repetition doesn't help - I do this, I do that, then I do something else, etc etc

(Incidentally, you can download the first chapter free from Robotham's website. I recommend you do - not only will you see what I mean, you'll save yourself the money when you see how bad the writing is.)

After that first chapter, I already knew it'd be a shocker of a novel. The characters are predictable cardboard, the dialogue is very unnatural and the plot, while flowing reasonably, hold no suprises. The antagonism in the plot is laughably unrealistic and hardly worth bothering with.

From the first chapter..

"It's amost as good as being a detective only we get to shoot people and drive fast" My God! She's a police officer.

"My left arm refuses to swing. It does that sometimes - fails to get with the plan"

"Possibilities fall like dominoes in my head, cascading from one tile to the next'

Total waste of money. Yes, if you like Billingham or James, you'll probably like this book, but that only means that you have a taste for awful crime writing.

Two stars for a flowing plot, but I'm being generous. It's a very poor `thriller'. Buy a psychological thriller from a US author - the US publishers are obviously more competent and have better taste than the idiots who approved this manuscript in the UK.

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant March 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

The best thriller I've read in years. Gripping right from the start. A brilliant opening: how does a woman come to be standing naked (apart from red high heels) on the Bristol suspension bridge, when she is terrified of heights? What makes her throw herself off, when she has everything to live for? I couldn't put this book down. An excellent holiday/escapist read. Fast-moving fluent prose, sympathetic characters and an ingenious plot. What more can a reader ask for? My only quibble (and a pretty small one) is that the fact that the hero suffered from Parkinsons didn't really add to the story.