Shatter // by Michael Robotham

//published 2008//

Well, look at this!  I promised you all this morning that I was going to start getting back into the blogging groove, and here we are with an actual book review already!  :-D

The third book in Robotham’s Joseph O’Laughlin series was absolutely addicting.  I had trouble putting this book down.  It was terrifying in that way that really good thrillers can be.  Robotham managed to create a story where the reader knows who the bad guy is pretty early on – and it only adds to the tension..

Overall, the premise of this book – that this murderer controls his victims through fear and manipulation and never actually physically sees or touches them – and yet they die – is so scary.  It was brilliant.  From the very beginning, when Joe watches a woman jump off a bridge, the fear ratchets up with every chapter.  With snippets of narrative from the killer, we get glimpses into the why and how of what is happening.  This isn’t a gory book at all.  Robotham doesn’t need it to keep his readers glued to the pages.

The first-person-present-tense continues to nag (why, why, why), but I found myself liking Joe even more in this book.  It was great fun to see Ruiz from the last book – now retired but just as Superintendent Battle-ish – and to see how character lives in general are progressing, because despite the excellent pacing of the book, there is still time for character development and background that really helps to fill out the book.

Speaking of which, I ended the book feeling quite frustrated with Joe’s life.  Mild spoiler, but his wife decides that they should separate at the end, and part of her reasoning behind this is because Joe got involved with this case at all.  But this made no sense to me.  Literally, a woman died because no one cared to find out what was happening with her – that’s the whole point of the first death.  Several people saw this woman on her way to jump off the bridge, and despite the fact that there were all these suspicious signs that something wasn’t right, no one cared.

But Joe cares, and it’s that caring that drives him to continue to assisting with the case.  In the end, I felt like his wife didn’t appreciate or deserve him.  Her attitude towards Joe really aggravated me, and he’s just so patient and resigned like, “Oh, she’s probably right, I’ve been rather self-centered lately worrying about the fact that I’m dying of Parkinson’s disease, so I suppose it’s perfectly reasonable that she wants to throw away our twenty years of marriage instead of trying to work through our problems, nbd.”  Except he said all that with no sarcasm.

Still, in the end this was a solid 4/5 read and I’m intrigued to continue with the series.  This book could be read as a stand alone, but I think that reading it in context of the preceding books helps to give it context.

Blogging Blehs

Sometimes I go through phases where blogging just sounds like so much work and ick, so that’s why I haven’t been posting much the last week or two.  Because, frankly, I only do this for fun, so if it isn’t fun…  there isn’t much of a point!

But I’m starting to feel the reviews simmering inside of me.  Writing is one of those things that I can’t help but do; I’ve done it my whole life.  And while I have no real skill for writing fiction, I’ve always enjoyed reviewing, summarizing, writing reports, all those sorts of things that help you through college.  And it’s part of why I started this blog – so I would have an outlet for my writing, and a place to practice it, because writing is definitely a skill that begins to fade away if it isn’t used regularly!

At any rate, I have some great books in the review queue, so I thought I would let you know what is upcoming, if I ever get around to it (links to Goodreads)….

• The Magician’s Workshop, Volumes I & II by Christopher R. Hansen and J.R. Fehr – these books were sent to me from the authors with a request for review.  I don’t always do this (and I honestly don’t get a lot of requests because I’m not like a crazy popular blogger), but I really liked the concept of these stories, and they ended up being a lot of fun.  I actually did write a Goodreads review for the first book, but I wasn’t really in a blogging mood when I did so, so that will probably be edited and then a review for both books posted here.  Someday.
• Shatter by Michael Robotham – the third Joseph O’Laughlin book was some A+ creepy shizznizz that I totally enjoyed, except for the part where they get divorced in the end.  What the heck.
• Terms & Conditions by Ysenda Maxtone Graham – this is my first Slightly Foxed edition book, and it was so much fun.  Just the physical act of reading this book was a delight because it is PERFECTLY bound.
• The New Way Things Work by David Macauley – Two nonfiction books in one month??  Yes!  I’ve been working through this book forever, and finally finished it off!
• The Travelers by Chris Pavone – this book was interesting, but I also felt like it should have been a lot more exciting for being a book about spies and all.  It somehow lacked that can’t-put-down-ness that really good thrillers have.
• Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen – I was expecting some little chick flick fluffiness, but this ended up being a surprisingly good story with a really excellent message that still wasn’t preachy.

As you can see, my blogging blues haven’t impacted my actual reading!  We’ve had some lazy weekend days here with really lousy weather.  The husband has been teaching himself to play bass on Rocksmith on the PS4 (surprisingly good?  Now I’m teaching myself guitar!), so I’ve been curled up in a fluffy recliner with a pile of books and a soft blanket, reading away and listening to the bass line of Roger Miller’s King of the Road repeatedly.

Hopefully all is well out there in the blogger world…  I should be back in the groove soon…