Shatter

January 5, 2009
Winner of Australia’s Ned Kelly Award for Best Novel, Robotham’s compelling fourth thriller (after The Night Ferry
) finds clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin and his family in Somerset, where he teaches part-time at the University of Bath. When Joe fails to persuade a suicidal woman not to leap from a bridge to her death, he becomes obsessed with understanding the woman’s motives. The woman’s grief-stricken teenage daughter tracks down Joe, but the police don’t take notice until another woman ends up dead under suspicious circumstances. Joe calls on an old friend, retired London detective inspector Vincent Ruiz, and together they race to catch a killer who uses psychological techniques Joe recognizes from his own practice to destroy people. Robotham smoothly mixes Joe’s investigation and personal struggles with glimpses into the killer’s mind. Even the sharpest readers may not anticipate all of the plot’s agile switchbacks or foresee the chilling climax.

If an audiobook disturbs your dreams, would you call it a success? Brace yourself. SHATTER is a nerve-shredding cat- and-mouse contest pitting psychologist Joe O'Loughlin against a master manipulator of psyches who persuades his victims to kill themselves just by talking to them. The story is told in alternating first-person accounts, and Sean Barrett wisely voices healer and murderer almost identically, making the point that they have much in common except that one of them uses his skills to torture and kill. When for a moment you're not sure who is speaking, it's thrillingly creepy. Barrett creates a wide range of wives, children, crusty cops, and panic-stricken victims with perfect control, and his pacing is propulsive. This is one you won't forget. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine